What did I learn translating Homer every day for a year?
by On the second Saturday of August each summer I can’t help but feel a real sense of emptiness as the Greek withdrawal symptoms kick in. …
Category: Reflections
Five mistakes I made as a young HoD
by Whittling all the great howlers of my early career down to just five was not an easy task, I can tell you, but it has …
A short history of alliteration
by To the mind of a Classical writer, imitative language – where the sound of the language encapsulates the content – was fundamental to good style. …
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 …
Prose comp: the case in favour
by I am a convert to prose composition. I did none as part of my own A-level Latin course. I did a lot in Greek at …
New OCR Classical Civilisation GCSE (9-1): the teacher’s view
by The OCR Classical Civilisation GCSE (9-1) – J199 is now two years old, and had its first and much-anticipated (and worried-about) round of exams this …
What happened when a History teacher taught themselves Latin GCSE?
by I’m going to share a secret with you all. My name is Rachel, and I’m a history teacher, but I don’t have a history degree. …
Last Supper in Pompeii: what will your pupils get out of it?
With the new term looming like a superheated ash cloud, I got on an escape train to Oxford last Friday in order to see the …
Should you give your pupils a translation of their set texts?
Much like Aeneas’ journey into the Underworld, preparing set texts over the summer holiday is a liminal phase between the old life and the new. …
Teaching at the JACT Latin Summer School 2019: what did I learn?
Tell any acquaintance that you’re spending two weeks in July teaching Latin to teenagers and they’ll likely look at you a bit funny. You can …
What does a HoD need from a new teacher?
My answer to this is an answer, and I speak from quite a privileged standpoint: my school is Classics-friendly, offering Latin, Greek and Class Civ …
What does a new teacher need from their HoD?
I’m a big believer in the mantra ‘recruit good people and let them get on with it’. If you give people- and pupils- trust and …
Are you a classicist or a Classics teacher?
This question I aired at a Keynote conference in January 2016. Think back to your last year of university… How do undergraduates operate? Compound adjectives …
What happens after five years teaching Classics?
It was my late uncle- an English teacher and Deputy Head- who at the outset of my career told me it takes five years to …