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Course Overview
Course Overview
Suburani is a Latin reading course. Its aims are to enable you, first, to read Latin with full understanding and, secondly, to learn about the life lived by people in the Roman Empire.
What sort of homes and cities did people live in? What did they do in their work and leisure time? What new ideas did they originate? It is necessary to understand Latin grammar to achieve these aims, but the course includes no translation from English to Latin.
Course Content
Course Content
In Year 9, we study Chapters 7-14 of our exciting new course, Suburani. We discover how Gisco and Catia met during the Roman invasion of Britannia, and learn what life was like for Britons in Roman-occupied Colchester, London and Bath. We return to Rome in time for the Great Fire of AD64 to find out how Sabina's family fare in the disaster. New grammar is gradually introduced through the stories, just as it was in Chapters 1-6 and we meet and discuss a range of vocabulary as we read.
Work continues to be assessed through a combination of unseen comprehension, open book translation and background projects, with vocabulary learning an ongoing task throughout the year. You are encouraged to visit as many Roman sites as possible, and in the past many group visits have been arranged, both in England and in Italy.
Skills & Application
Skills & Application
Latin is not just one subject: it is not only a language, but also the study of a civilisation through its history, archaeological sites and literature. As well as being an interesting and challenging subject in its own right, Latin can also help you to develop many skills which will be valuable in your other subjects and your future qualifications and careers. Here are a few of them:
It can help your verbal skills and promotes a broad and extensive vocabulary.
Identifying English derivations (and those from other languages) helps you to decode unfamiliar language when you meet it in all subjects. This logical, problem solving approach to translation is a very useful skill in the world of coding and Computer Science.
This can help you to learn other languages - it is a brilliant accompaniment to French, Spanish and Italian especially.
Understanding Latin grammar will help you to understand grammar in English and to write with more fluency and accuracy.
Later on in the Latin course we introduce Roman Literature. At GCSE level you can read the works of Virgil, Cicero, Caesar and Ovid. Much of western literature is built on these texts so it is an excellent opportunity to broaden your knowledge and understanding of the literary world.
As well as language and literature, Latin is fundamentally the study of Romans, so if you have enjoyed finding out about life in Rome in Year 8, the Year 9 course will broaden your understanding of the Roman world across the rest of its empire.
FAQs:
FAQs:
What is the point of studying a 'dead' language?
What is the point of studying a 'dead' language?
We prefer the term 'immortal'...
We prefer the term 'immortal'...
The skills developed by learning Latin are applicable to an incredibly broad array of careers and undergraduate degrees. Studying literature teaches skills of analysis and evaluation as well as compassion and empathy, the historical content promotes objectivity and perspective, and learning the language encourages logic, order, discipline, structure, and precision. In other words, this subject will train your brain and teach you how to think. And that is why it is so highly valued by both admissions departments and employers:
Perhaps the single most important quality for a senior executive is the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly. I can think of no better way to learn these skills than by the study of Classics.
Perhaps the single most important quality for a senior executive is the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly. I can think of no better way to learn these skills than by the study of Classics.
Sir Anthony Cleaver, former Chair of IBM
What Classics has always done is just teach people how to think.
What Classics has always done is just teach people how to think.
Richard Dawkins
To find out more, this video is an excellent argument for the value of Latin.
What co-curricular opportunities are available?
What co-curricular opportunities are available?
Compete in the annual Latin and Greek Reading Competition.
Recent trips have been to Rome and the Bay of Naples... we are going to Greece this Easter!
Support or run Classics Club for Y7 as they hold Roman dinner parties, direct their own Greek plays and design Greek vases.
Latin Scrabble
Teach Beginners' Latin using 'Minimus' in the Junior School
Attend local Classics lectures and competitions.
Classical Greek
Classical Greek
Classical Greek may also be studied in Year 9 as a twilight subject, i.e. after school or at lunchtimes. The course leads up to GCSE for those who wish to continue into Year 10 and is very similar in format to Latin GCSE. It is available to all students but obviously may appeal more to those studying Latin.
The Classics Team
The Classics Team
Ms Liz Meehan | Head of Department elizabethmeehan@chschool.co.uk
Mrs Lisa Barfoot
Dr Sarah Brooks
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