The Classics department provides a rich and exciting variety of activities outside timetabled lessons in which we introduce the full range of our discipline. There’s more to these subjects than language learning. We can introduce pupils to some of the greatest and most exciting literary texts in Western culture, show them stunning works of art and architecture, and bring to life many of the most famous figures in this continent’s history.
School Trips In October 2015, 28 boys from the Middle and Upper School visited western Turkey under the leadership of Mr Drew, visiting the extraordinary classical sites including those at Troy, Priene, Ephesus and Miletus. The trip culminated in a three-day tour of Istanbul where we saw, amongst much else, the breathtaking Aya Sofia, the Topkapi Palace, the Basilica Cistern and made a tour of the Great Souk. Given the political state of the country in 2016, we do not know when we will next be able to undertake such an expedition; what a wonderful opportunity, therefore, to take boys on such a tour; it certainly felt like the trip of a lifetime. ‘The trip to Turkey was the perfect way to prepare for my Oxford interviews for Classics.’ Henry Lewis, Year 13 In the summer of 2016, Year 9 boys made a tour of Romano-British sites including Silchester, Cirencester and Chedworth Roman Villa before spending a day in London visiting the amphitheatre underneath the Guildhall Art Gallery and the Roman Britain rooms of the British Museum (and, of course, a quick visit to see the Elgin Marbles!). Further trips are planned to Greece and Italy in the next two years.
We take a variety of trips and expeditions both in the UK and abroad. In May, all boys in Year 8 visit the Roman Villa at Lullingstone, where a recently refurbished museum displays an exciting and remarkably complete site which includes some stunning mosaics and some of the earliest recorded Christian worship in the country.
Stunning mosaics at Lullingstone.
Boys in Year 12 also make a day trip to the British Museum. This year’s visit, in the company of Dr Hulls and Ms Coombs, afforded the boys the opportunity to see the most significant and controversial of all the museum’s holdings, the Elgin Marbles, which ooze the aesthetic mastery of democratic Athens at its height. Boys also looked at an inscription from Egypt which celebrated the building of a bridge under the auspices of the
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