Latin GCSE

Have you ever considered how words in English started out? Wanted to know more about how the Romans lived? Wondered what the Ancient Romans found funny? Sadly not enough young people get the opportunity to study Latin, at the time of writing we are the only state school in Cornwall!

Latin GCSE is both stimulating and interesting as it allows you a chance to delve into the exciting world of Gladiators and fantastic storytellers. You will be introduced to vocabulary and grammar that will help you to understand how English has developed. There is a large body of evidence that points to the fact that young people who study Latin gain an advantage in multiple other academic areas that are applicable to a wide range of careers.

Throughout the course everyone will study Latin Language, Literature and Roman Civilisation. For Language you will read Latin stories and be able to translate into and from English. You’ll also learn to identify a wide range of linguistic features and be able to pick these out of Latin texts. For the Literature element, you will study a range of texts and pictures around one particular theme. Roman Civilisation is a historical study of buildings, pictures, written texts etc to help you understand how the Romans lived, what they believed in and how their society worked.

Studying Latin can open the door to an array of career paths that require use of language. It is an ideal complement to a range of subjects where formal terminology is used, such as law, medicine, teaching and further language study. Latin is a great subject to develop a number of transferrable skills for further education, work and life.

There are three exams at GCSE:

• Component 1 (Latin Language) is worth 50% of the qualification.

• Component 2 (Latin Literature and Sources) is worth 30%.

• Component 3 (Roman Civilisation) is worth 20%.

For further information, please see Miss C Campbell and Mr G Alcaniz.