What to expect from Quinquennium in Autumn 2022
by It’s year 4 of Quinquennium and you’d be right to furrow your brow and ask what happened in year 3. Answer: not much! The HoD’s …
Author: Dom
Hi! I began my career in 2011, teaching English on the Teach First programme. In 2014 I returned to the Classics fold, teaching at Westminster School for six years. I founded Quinquennium in 2019 with the aim of stimulating discussion and reflection among early career practitioners: those who are happily established but still eager to learn. I now head the Classics department at King Edward's School, Birmingham.
Can you imagine Year 7 Latin without Caecilius in horto?
Mount Vesuvius casts a very long shadow. It looms large over the bay of Naples but it looms larger, perhaps, in the memories of the …
Can you teach the Aeneid without mentioning Augustus?
Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; So begins Auden’s ‘Epitaph on a tyrant’, …
Quinquennium: the first year in numbers
Total posts: 54 Average words per post: 989 No. of contributors: 24 Total views: 12,036 Total visitors: 3,465 Most views on one day: 777 (29th …
Five reasons you (and your pupils) should join Twitter
A journalist recently described Twitter as ‘the wet market of ideas’. What’s more, it’s a platform which attracts – as we all know – some …
Review: Pompeii (2014)
‘More of a disaster than the event it was based on’ was how Kit Harington described Pompeii the film he starred in six years ago. …
What exactly is Classical Reception?
It’s the sexy frontier field of Classics and it’s boom business for theatre producers, novelists and Netflix execs. But what exactly is it? How should …
What’s it like learning Latin in Italy?
Last week I sat down with Federica, a Classics graduate from Calabria (in the toe) who is studying at UCL on the Erasmus programme. After …
What does the world’s most expensive garum taste like?
Rarely, might I submit, does the common-or-garden Classics teacher open the How To Spend It supplement of the FT Weekend, read a review of a …
Review: The Ingenious Language by Andrea Marcolongo (2019)
‘Tense and aspect. Name a more iconic duo.’ This piece of Twitter bait was posted last week by an American linguist, and you can just …
How to maximise the last third of the GCSE Latin course?
This time of year I always spare a thought for the wit and wisdom of Usain ‘Lightning’ Bolt. He has said many times – and …
A short history of alliteration
To the mind of a Classical writer, imitative language – where the sound of the language encapsulates the content – was fundamental to good style. …
Can you coach a pupil into Oxford or Cambridge?
No, thankfully not. But what a Classics teacher can do is offer opportunities for aspirational pupils to find their own critical voice: to respond personally …
Does knowing Latin help you think like a Roman?
Here’s a fun party game. Can you name the five most common Latin words that have no English equivalent? Admittedly, you need to choose your …
Review: Vertigo & Ghost (2019)
Rape. It’s a word that we flinch from – in conversation, in public discourse, and in Classics classrooms. And perhaps we flinch doubly when a …