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Schools pilot helps bring Latin lessons ex umbris
Dominic Hayes, Evening Standard03.12.07
Latin is making a comeback in a string of state schools serving some of London's toughest areas.
A classics project piloted in two east London schools has now been extended to cover about 20 - including one of the capital's newest city academies.
Dr Lorna Richardson, founder of the Iris Project, which is backed by Cambridge University, said pupils' literacy levels could be improved if they studied Latin alongside national curriculum subjects.
For the past year she has been teaching weekly Latin classes at Benthal Primary in Hackney, one of the schools in the initial experiment. "What Latin does is enrich the literacy curriculum and encourage a love of language and discovering its roots," said Dr Richardson.
Schools that have joined the programme in the current academic year include the Bridge Academy in Hackney.
Latin is still an endangered subject and its survival rests largely on its popularity in private schools. But research by the Cambridge Schools Classics Project found the number of state schools offering Latin has gone up from 200 to 459 since 2003.
Benthal pupils have been introduced to the language through fun activities. For example, they are given Latin and English word cards and asked to find those that might be connected - such as umbra, the Latin for shadow, and the English umbrella.
Dr Richardson said she started the Iris Project after becoming "frustrated" by the fact that state school pupils were being denied the chance to benefit from Latin lessons.
The scheme is backed by Boris Johnson, Conservative candidate for London Mayor, who studied classics at Oxford University and won a campaign to stop exam board OCR scrapping its ancient history A-level this year.
Reader views (2)
Having been a citizen of Hackney who has had the benefit of Latin (at school in Hackney), I realise that Latin is actually a very useful adjunct to English, (seeing as how so much of our vocabulary has its origin in Latin), and at least it can help you make a reasonable attempt at spelling! Reading the writings of our predecessors by 2 millenia also impressed me, for we are no cleverer than them, and I have enjoyed the beautiful poetry of Vergil, who lived so long ago.
- Dr. Rosemarie Daly, Clapton
I think all schools schould be teaching Latin, but not before learning other languages. Once you grasp these then Latin is easy.
- Leigh, UK
