Curriculum Intent and Rationale
To foster curiosity. Students are encouraged to question and debate and given the freedom to explore ideas and areas of interest as and when they come up in order to develop their desire for enquiry
Staff model this in the classroom through digressions and checking etymology of words etc. Not knowing something (within reason) is treated as an exciting chance to find out something new.
The thinking behind this is to help demystify academia so that all students feel able to access the topic. It also helps to develop life long learning skills. All too often students and teachers try to hide what they do not know. In this department we celebrate and rectify.
Coupled with this is the facilitating of a love of the subject. Staff are open in their love and the frustrations they have with the subject and students are encouraged to join in with this. The excitement of the teacher sets the tone for the lessons.
In turn the students adopt this approach. The belief behind this being that it is a lot easier to teach and for the students to learn when they are enthusiastic.
This coupled with curiosity lays the groundwork for all the aspects that follow.
To complete the requirements of the specification and to ensure students are prepared for the demands of the exams.
Tool Kit
1. Developing analytical skills
a. Students are taught to apply processes to areas that they find difficult in order to overcome them. This ranges from translation techniques at GCSE to note taking and essay writing at A level.
b. For each skill that the students need to develop for the exam methods are broken down into their key ingredients and then reassembled so that students do not fear or choke when confronted with difficult tasks. All this is underpinned by the fostering of curiosity and the love of learning.
2. To challenge accepted thought
a. A key part of the course at KS4 and KS5 is to explore the cultural history of the Greeks and Romans. This leads to discussions on the development and reasoning behind cultural norms (many of which still impact on us today)
b. Staff encourage students to explore the development of these beliefs and the damage and or benefits that these bring. These skills are then applied to modern scenarios as the students unpick the injustice and rationale behind modern constructs of what society is.
Implementing our curriculum
Key Stage 4
Specification: WJEC
The GCSE curriculum blends language and civilisation, whilst also giving you the opportunity to study Roman literature in the original Latin.
These three strands map on to the three units that are assessed at GCSE, and at KS4 you will receive 5 lessons per fortnight with a Latin specialist. You will focus on learning Latin language during Year 10, in order to prepare you for moving on to Latin literature in Year 11; the literature topic area for examination in 2022 and 2023 is Superstition and Magic.
Alongside your language and literature work, you will also study elements of Roman civilisation, which both enhances your understanding of the language and the literature, and also prepares you for the civilisation paper; the topic area for examination in 2022 and 2023 is Daily Life in a Roman Town.
The combination of exploring both culture and language is, I think, the USP of this course. It is a very well rounded course that brings the ancient world to life.
Key Stage 5
Specification: OCR
The World of the Hero (there are two parts to this component {Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid); you will be studying the second one (Aeneid) in year 13}:
Homer’s Odyssey. This is the oldest surviving western epic (probably the first ever written). However, what makes the poem so wonderful is the world that Homer creates.
We consider the time when the Odyssey was created (8th century B.C.). We will also look at how, in a largely illiterate culture, the Iliad came to be written down. Our main focus, though, is the wonderful story itself, where we find out about the great ‘Trojan War’ (e.g. how it started and who was involved). Along the way, we get to meet many interesting characters, such as the semi-divine Achilleus (Achilles), the cunning Odysseus, the brave Hektor, and Helen, ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’. Of course, the gods, such as Zeus, Poseidon and Athene, also play a vital part in the epic. Superficially, the story seems to be about homewoming, yet there is much more to this masterpiece, and through its study we shall learn to appreciate characterisation, and narrative and descriptive techniques, and cover themes such as heroism, the role of women, and Fate and the Gods.
Virgil’s’ Aeneid: the classical world was hugely influenced by Homer’s great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. However, some 700 years later after these were ‘written’ the classical world had begun to change, and now Rome was the dominant culture. In response to Homer’s masterpieces, a Latin (Roman) writer, named Vergil, wrote a Roman epic to challenge the epics & cultural dominance of Homer and the Greeks.
The Aeneid is about the Trojan hero, Aeneas, who comes to found the beginnings of the Roman empire. You have already met Aeneas in the Iliad, but only briefly. Basically, he fights in Troy, but must leave as it is his destiny to flee the devastated city, save the few of his companions who have survived the Trojan War, & establish what will be the early beginnings of Rome in Italy. We travel with Aeneas through many lands, and see him being tested by the gods in his quest. On the way, Aeneas falls in love, retells the story of Troy’s Fall, visits the Underworld, and battles with a great army. In these ways, Vergil has written something of a Roman epic, combining parts from Homer’s Iliad (your knowledge of the Iliad will really help) and the Odyssey. However, Vergil also takes the opportunity to rewrite history, as his work is also about how Rome came to become a great empire. Vergil was patronised (sponsored) by Augustus, the Roman emperor at the time, therefore, his work, although epic, has a very political ‘spin’, too. (So, we get to study some Roman history, such as Antony and Cleopatra, the murder of Julius Caesar and Rome’s war with Hannibal – and his elephants).
Greek Theatre: Greek Theatre (there are three parts to this component {Greek Drama, Visual/ Material Sources – Greek Theatres, Visual/ Material Sources – Greek Vases}:
Greek Drama: The most fruitful time for Greek tragic writing was, as with Greek comedy, the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. We will consider the historical and political background of the time to help us appreciate how the plays were relevant to ancient audiences. We will also consider how old myths were used in tragedy. However, the main focus of our work will be the plays themselves.
Sophocles’ King Oedipus is one of the most famous Greek myths. It is a tragic story about a man who unwittingly kills his father and ‘marries’ his mother.
In Euripides’ Bacchae, you will meet a young ruler who foolishly rejects the god Dionysus, and pays the ultimate price, again, courtesy of his mother!
The plays are fascinating as in each one we see how ‘great’ people bring themselves to ruin. The playwrights also use mythological settings to explore issues such as love, lust, the role of women, arrogance and the limits of ‘man’.
Aristophanes, Frogs – Greek culture had a lighter side, too. In this module we also study one of the works of the most famous Greek comic writer, Aristophanes. Aristophanes wrote during the 5th-4th centuries B.C. In the Frogs, we meet some very funny and interesting characters. We embark on a fantastical journey with the god Dionysus (and his cheeky slave) to the Underworld, a place where corpses answer back, dead playwrights argue, and poetry is weighed on scales (imagine being able to actually quantify quality!) – oh yes, and frogs sing. However, through studying this comedy we will see there are some more serious messages (for you to discover), and we will also get a chance to look at the world that Aristophanes lived in, to really appreciate his jokes.
Visual/ Material Sources: To fully understand these cultural phenomena requires study of not only the plays but the context in which their form and production developed. To develop this understanding involves the study of the physical theatre space used by the Greeks to stage their dramas, and also depictions of this staging in the visual/material record. This part of the component adds a different type of magic to your classical studies, as you begin to appreciate further non-literary aspects of the ancient world, whilst developing your ability to ‘read’ in other ways.
The visual/ material aspects includes study of areas ranging from the ancient Theatre of Thorikos and the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens (where all the plays we study were originally performed about 2500 years ago)
Love and Relationships will see us explore the nature of love in the ancient world. We explore the the roles of men and women in Roman and Greek cultures and go beyond the simplistic stereotypes.
We will also explore the works of Sappho, Seneca, Plato and Ovid. This will give you a wide understanding of different perspectives writing for a varied audience. This is one of my favourite units as we really get to grips with some of the issues that is still causing problems to this day.