Classical Greek

Course summary

All pupils study Greek in the Fifth Form (Year 9). We set pupils according to their previous experience, with the aim that, at the end of the year, every pupil should be in a strong position to carry on towards GCSE if they so wish. Alongside our in-house language materials, all sets read and discuss a Greek tragedy in translation and study various other topics of ancient Greek history and literature. The School offers the Classical Greek GCSE, which consists of language and literature components (50% each). For their verse set text, pupils have the opportunity to read an extract from one of Homer’s limitlessly The curriculum comprises a language course and a literature course. In the Sixth Form (Year 12), the language course is an intensive survey of advanced syntax, underpinned by vocabulary and accidence learning and with a focus on translation from English into Greek. The literature course aims to broaden and deepen pupils’ appreciation of a range of authors and genres, such as Homer (epic), Lysias (rhetoric), and Herodotus and Thucydides (history); to build confidence in reading Greek; and to develop writing skills through essays. We also have a series of seminars on wider literary and cultural issues arising from our texts. In the Remove (Year 13), we prepare more directly for the Classical Greek A Level. Pupils read and discuss set texts in verse (usually tragedy) and prose (history or philosophy), and practise unseen translation into English and prose composition into Greek.