Concordia

Fifths witness the Upper Sixth preparing for their university applications, their Oxbridge entrance exams, and their interviews, and yearn to follow in their footsteps – and our record here remains strong, with two OMTs going up to Oxford last October to read Classics, and another to Cambridge this year. Classics has a very fine place in the history of the school, and we are both proud of our heritage and aware of our fortunate position of being in a school that still values its Classics department, and is willing to support its work, even if the numbers are small. When the Deputy Head and I were asked at a recent open morning by a prospective parent what we could offer that other local schools could not offer, one answer sprang to mind: we will run a class for one pupil who wishes to study a subject such as Greek, whereas in most schools, especially in the state sector, prizing academic excellence so far above budgetary concerns would be unthinkable.

Concordia Winter 2021

challenge: the subjects remain difficult, and indeed the assessment is more difficult now than it was between 2001 and 2017, when an AS exam, worth half of the A Level, was sat at the end of Lower Sixth. There is no vocabulary list at A Level, and unseen translation of Thucydides, Sophocles, Livy, and Ovid (the authors currently set for unseen translation) is tough. No pupil will find accurate translation of these effortless, and so the subjects’ survival relies on there being pupils out there eager for the challenge. It is surely the case that unseen translation of Greek tragedy poses greater challenges – and therefore less guarantee of a top grade, often vital for an offer from a leading university – than many other subjects offered at A Level and GCSE. Whether the exam board – yes, there is just one – needs to reflect on the level of difficulty in the specifications is a question beyond the scope of this article, but they are not making life easy for us as we seek to persuade promising Classicists to pursue the subject. Aside from the content of the subjects, another feature that undoubtedly persists from years gone by is that very particular sense of community that seems to exist among Classicists. Though we are no longer housed in the centre of the school – we look lakeward now, in the block shared with MFL (as Diocletian moved his capital to the fringes of empire, perhaps) – there is a real sense of identity in the Classics corridor, with walls covered by maps, flags, film posters, and photographs of our trips to the great Classical sites. These trips have long been an inimitable feature and draw of the department – annual trips to Naples, more occasional trips to Greece and Sicily, and even Hadrian’s Wall. In addition, frequent trips to theatre productions, exhibitions, and lectures have been augmented in recent years by some very successful and enjoyable residential reading days at a former convent in Berkshire. All of this has created a real sense of community, whereby a small and committed number of pupils in different year groups get to know one another and their teachers as they share discussions, buses, and meals together. From this too develops ambition and aspiration: the Divisions and

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