[EDLING:1864] EducationGuardian.co.uk: Video-link Latin to bolster neglected classics teaching

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Note from Francis Hult:

Video-link Latin to bolster neglected classics teaching 


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To see this story with its related links on the EducationGuardian.co.uk site, go to http://education.guardian.co.uk

Video-link Latin to bolster neglected classics teaching 
Rebecca Smithers 
Monday September 11 2006
The Guardian


Forget the days of rows of youngsters chanting "amo, amas, amat". Children at the vast majority of secondary schools that do not teach Latin are being offered an opportunity to learn the language for the first time using a live video link, as part of a new drive to revive interest in the language announced today.

Following a successful pilot, the Cambridge Schools Classics Project (CSCP) is employing a full-time staff member who will teach Latin to schools which do not have specialist teachers. Lessons will be beamed into classrooms around the country, using state-of-the-art video-conferencing equipment, teaching pupils face-to-face without ever necessarily meeting them.

It hopes that the approach will rewaken an interest in Latin in the hundreds of schools where it is no longer taught on the syllabus. A decline in the popularity of Latin and Greek has led to a slump in the number of specialist teachers. In 1988, about 16,000 students sat GCSE Latin, but this year the number had fallen to less than 10,000, with only one-third of entries from state schools.

The proportion taking A-level is even lower - last year, fewer than 1,000 took it - which has also reduced the pool of potential teachers. Last year, the biggest exam board, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), dropped both GCSE and A-level Latin and Greek after a sharp downturn in entries, leaving just one exam body offering the course: OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA).

The CSCP - part of the University of Cambridge's faculty of education - says the move into new technology is key to its aim of making the classical world accessible for as many students as possible, whatever their type of school, age or social backgrounds. The video link can be used to teach schoolchildren at all levels, from basic Latin during lunchtime and after-school clubs through GCSE and up to A-level standard.

The CSCP's project director Will Griffiths - a classicist himself - said: "We are not doing lectures; it's just like a normal class. The children are fully involved, and the whole thing works both ways in real time. This isn't about reintroducing Latin into posh schools in leafy surburbs. We will be working with youngsters in some very challenging areas in Tower Hamlets, Newham and Greenwich."

The collaboration with Lawrence Sheriff school in Rugby has already been successful, with "fast-track" GCSE Latin now being offered from scratch in just four terms, based on three hours teaching via video link every week.

Staff say the method has met with a positive response from pupils during the pilot, with whom they have struck up a good relationship.

Mr Griffiths continued: "We would always say that a specialist teacher in the classroom is prefereable, because they will know the students better and can therefore make Latin more exciting, interesting and relevant to the particular students in that school.

"If we can use this to build up enough interest to justify the appointment of a full or part-time Latin teacher in the school, then that is good news. And if we can help set up a Latin department where there has never been one before, that is a real success story."

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited