Classics

Examination results are excellent – among the best in the School – and the numbers taking languages at GCSE and A Level is very healthy.

Results for the department have been very good in recent years. In 2008, 90% of the candidates scored A* or A for GCSE Latin and 100% scored an A grade at AS, while for GCSE Classical Civilisation 53% scored grades in the range A* - B and at A2 45% scored A/B grades and 91% scored A-C grades.

(Link to Exam Results Tables)

The Department runs regular trips to the Classical world, visiting Greece in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008 and Italy in 2005. The trips are hugely popular and involve groups of staff and pupils of up to 50 people. A VIth Form trip to the classical sites of Turkey is planned in Easter 2009 and a LVth trip to Italy is planned for February 2009. Pupils from a range of year groups (most recently the entire IVth Form, to see the recent Hadrian exhibition) have also visited the British Museum on departmental outings. Classics-themed lunch-time activities have involved ‘Beginners’ Greek’ and the Cranleigh Classics Society [led by a student president and secretary] is one of the most active student societies in the school. The department regularly takes pupils to see professional productions of Classical drama, for example the Cambridge University production of Medea and the production of Sophocles’ ‘Oedipus’ at the National Theatre starring Ralph Fiennes. VIth Formers regularly attend lectures and seminars to broaden their understanding of the Classical world, most recently by Dr Caroline Vout [Christ’s College Cambridge] on Greek Sculpture, John Davie on Shakespeare and the Classics and James Harpur [OC] on Boethius’s ‘Consolations of Philosophy’.

Further information about the exact content and structure of the Latin and Classical Civilisation courses can be found in the First Three Years booklet and the Sixth Form booklet.