Classics Week

The ante-penultimate week of term saw the Classics Department facilitate a range of activities.

The week began with an online Q&A on the fall of the Roman Republic, led by Alexander Moore from Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. The girls asked some typically probing questions about this fascinating period of Roman history, and came away with excellent suggestions for further reading.

Tuesday saw the inaugural Latin Spelling Bee. After an impressive show of knowledge from the participants – including spelling words far beyond their current textbooks – our eventual winners were Sofia in Year 9 and Chloe in Year 7.  The most well-attended event of the week followed on Wednesday lunchtime: Chocolate Temple Construction! Miss Jacobs inspired around 40 girls to learn about the design of ancient temples and try their hand at building their very own confectionary columns. The same evening, students were also invited to join a Classics For All screening of a live lecture from Professor Mary Beard, who spoke candidly and with great humour about her career as a woman in classical academia.

Thursday lunchtime featured a classical mythology quiz run by Ms Lui and the Junior Classics Club, and students rounded off the week with two activities on Friday: a talk on ‘Ancient Rome at the cinema’ given by Mr Thicknesse, and a trip to hear the Aeneid read, both in English and Latin, at King’s College, London.