PUPILS aged 11 and 12 from a Harrogate school are learning Latin for the first time in years, as the subject continues to rise in prominence after years of decline.
Pupils in Year 7 and Year 8 at Ashville College once again study Latin, one of the foundations of western civilisation and, for thousands of years, the lingua franca of most of Europe.
Latin is the basis of Romance languages such as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, and has had a profound influence on English and other languages, with its terminology found in subjects as diverse as science, medicine, and law.
In time, it is hoped an additional benefit for pupils will be a greater awareness of how Roman culture has influenced our own even here in Yorkshire, where York (Eboracum) was home to the Roman capital in Britain long before London.
Head of Classics, Mark Knowles, himself an author of successful novels set in Roman times, notes: “The rewards of studying ancient languages are immense, both in terms of directly transferable skills of analysis and lateral thinking, as well as softer skills of enhancing our awareness of self and other.”
Rhiannon Wilkinson, Head of Ashville College, said: “Teaching of Latin has in recent years been revolutionised. No longer is it just a matter of conjugating verbs and the declension of nouns, but focuses on a “living Latin”, looking at the way the people of the Roman Empire lived. It takes in such epic moments in history as the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, as years CE were once labelled.
“It leads often to the study of Classical Civilisation at GCSE and A Level which also introduces pupils to the world of Ancient Greece and many of the foundational texts of literature – The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, the poetry of Catullus, Juvenal and Sappho, and the plays of Aristophanes and Euripides. Eboracum (York) was one of the provincial capitals of Roman Britain so it’s good to see Latin coming home.”
Photo caption: Mr Mark Knowles, Head of Classics at Ashville College, with Miss Chloe Griggs, Teacher of Latin
Categories: Ashville College School News
