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| November 2014 | www.classicsforall.org.uk | |||||
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Letter from Chairman | Classic at City Hall | Letter from Director | Grant Programme | Other Grant News | In their Words | Capital Classics Inside CfA | Join the Classics campaign | About Us |
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| Letter from the Chairman |
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| CfA is only four years old, and we can be proud of what we have achieved so far on fairly limited funding. But the demand is there, and it is vital that we now up our game. Your money is used for the training of primary and secondary school teachers and pays for their temporary replacements while they do so. It goes only to schools which commit to making Classics permanent at the end of our grant period (usually two or three years). With every grant we make, more schools in that area contact us, while the grant recipients themselves often introduce more Classical subjects once they get started. So the word is spreading fast, and gathering pace. Government policy is also adding impetus, as learning a foreign language is now compulsory at all primary schools, and Latin and Greek are among the named options. We are seeing a particular surge among primary schools which, spoilt for choice between so many modern languages, are introducing Latin as the best possible foundation for all of them. But to do so they need launch-aid help from CfA. There’s a rising tide and we need to catch it – fast. The need from schools is huge, and CfA must do all in its power to match it. That means new donations, yours and mine, and new donors too. For if we are to make credible our applications for the much larger sums that trusts, foundations and philanthropists can provide, we must be able to show that the response on the ground to our fundraising is as compelling as is the demand from schools for Classics. Expanding our base of individual donors such as yourselves is absolutely crucial to the success of this urgent enterprise. A significant way in which you can do this is to become one of those helping to lay the foundations of a permanent base on which we can build our work. We therefore invite you, and anyone else you know for whom the education of our children is of prime importance, to become: One of the thousand donors we are working towards who will pledge a gift-aided £100 a year; or One of a further hundred donors pledging £1,000 a year Best of all, be a philanthropist and become one of our Benefactors! But whatever you choose, please help us catch that rising tide. Think of a number, double it, and help us more than double the number of schools and children being introduced to Classics during the coming year. And please make it annual so as to help us build on those numbers thereafter. letter This is an extract of a speech given at the 18 September City Hall fundraising event for CfA; for a full version of the October 2014 Letter from the Chairman, click here. Nicholas Barber CBE, Chairman Back to top |
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| Classics at City Hall |  Bettany Hughes  Boris Johnson | |||||
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| Love for Classics was very much in the air at the CfA fundraiser held at City Hall last month. Patrons and supporters of the charity gathered to celebrate the achievements of the charity and prepare for new projects and new rounds of funding ahead. Even on this evening dedicated to the ancient world, you couldn’t escape the modern: health and safety regulations had to be read out. Peter Jones did the honours in Latin: Si incendium oritur, effugiendum est. Statim, etc. While paying homage to London as the new Athens, the charity's patron Boris Johnson reflected that, in defiance of health and safety, you could hop on and off the capital’s buses, much like Diomedes in his chariot (epibainô and apobainô since you ask). And on the eve of the Scottish referendum, Johnson couldn't resist declaring that “the people of Caledonia will vote. But I know they will say NO in droves.” He based his prediction on Tacitus’s 2,000-year-old account of the tattooed Celtic chieftain, Calgacus, who united the British tribes faced with the invading Roman forces. The mayor concluded: “We were united before the Romans came to this island, and we were united after. If only Alex Salmond had had the benefit of a classical education.” Yasmin, a year 9 pupil at Burntwood School in Tooting, was next to extol the benefits of classics. Her class is just about to embark on Ancient Greek GCSE as a result of the CfA programme started two years ago. The Greig City Academy has just started a Classics Club for the first time. The words of the Assistant Deputy Head Deborah Hughes summed up CfA's mission: “The achievement of mastering such challenging subjects encourages academic confidence and ambition, and gives them invaluable cultural capital which will benefit these students for the rest of their lives.” Fleur Macdonald, CfA Volunteer CfA’s 2015 fundraising events will be announced in January. Back to top |
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| Letter from Director |  Jules Mann, Executive Director |
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| Since our last newsletter we have reached out to schools in a number of ways to get them thinking about offering Classics. For instance we have been working with a number of graduate and post graduate Classics students who signed up as Ambassadors of Ancient Greek, a project funded by the Greek Embassy, which we are running in partnership with Classics in Communities and The Iris Project in Oxford. So far these students have visited 11 schools around the country and spoken with over 700 primary and secondary pupils about Ancient Greek, sharing their own passion about learning Classics. As Emily Rushton reported from Castlecombe Primary School, where she spoke to 30 pupils about Ancient Greek, ‘it was interactive and the newness of the subject brought the whole class to an even keel; for children whose first language wasn’t English, picking up the language was extremely easy’. This compelling evidence from just a brief visit may stimulate schools to consider a grant from CfA to develop this work further! In the months ahead we will work with our many partners across the country to get the word out to encourage schools to apply for grants, and to think in terms of working together. We will be putting examples of successful models on our website, such as read full letter. Back to top |
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| Open for Applications |  |
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| We are now open for grant applications, with a closing date of Friday 16 January 2015; grant decisions will be made in mid-February 2015. Total funding amount will be at least £200,000 – please help us spread the word to schools! See here for details of grants awarded previously, which will give you an idea of what we fund. We are looking for schemes that are sustainable and will bring Classics to a substantial group of state school pupils. Our Teacher Leaflet explains more about our grant programme – feel free to distribute this widely. If you have any questions about our grants or grant giving process please e-mail us at grants@classicsforall.org.uk. Back to top |
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| Other Grant News |  |
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| Our university Classics network is expanding: Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham Universities are now joined by Oxford and Cambridge to provide student teachers to give classroom support while schools train their teachers in Latin. When we announced the 2014 grant awards there were several projects still being finalised that missed our last newsletter. These include Kelmscott School, Solihull School, Classics in Communities (Oxford), All Saints School in York and some smaller grants linked to primary school teacher resource and training support. See details on our website. Back to top |
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| In their words: School Profiles |  Yasmin Soliman addresses the audience  Deborah Hughes outlines Classics plans |
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| Two speakers at our fundraising event at City Hall shared their perspectives on CfA’s grants to their schools. Burntwood School Hello, my name’s Yasmin. I go to Burntwood School in Tooting and I’m in Year 9. When I started at Burntwood I had the opportunity to join new clubs and try out new extra-curricular activities. One of the lunchtime classes I joined was Ancient Greek. I had learned a bit about the mythology and the civilisation of Ancient Greece at primary school but I no idea that when I started at Burntwood I would have the chance to learn the language spoken by the Ancient Greeks themselves. Ancient Greek is not a subject that you find in the curriculum and that’s why I was intrigued to find out more. In our first few weeks I learned word like philos and sophia and realised that many of the words we speak in English are related to Ancient Greek and I feel that learning Greek definitely helps me with my other subjects. Read full profile Greig City Academy The grant from ‘Classics for All’ has enabled us to start a Classics club in school for 16 of our 12-13 year olds. The club is entirely voluntary, and the enthusiasm and interest shown by the students who have joined is very evident. The class is currently oversubscribed with a waiting list, demonstrating the interest and modern relevance it has for students at the school. The study of Classics has previously been accessible only to the privileged few and the grant therefore has brought the joys of learning about the ancient world to a new, and very keen, young audience. The Classics group are first and foremost gaining a secure knowledge of Latin and Greek words. Knowledge of these ancient languages gives them a considerable advantage when studying modern foreign languages as well as improving their own knowledge and understanding of English. Gaining an awareness of root words is helping our students build their vocabulary and become more confident with deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words. In a wider sense, access to broader context of Classics - the mythology, culture, and history of the Classical world, is giving our students an excellent cultural grounding and an insight into the UK’s culture and history. Read full profile Back to top
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| Capital Classics project update |  Jessica Ofori-Forbes  Vincent Hitchin | |||||
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| Teachers from primary and secondary schools in East London have just begun their Latin evening course at Birkbeck College, University of London, as part of the Capital Classics project funded by the London Schools Excellence Fund. Enrolment requests are still coming in, so Capital Classics plans to provide a second tranche of teacher training in Latin from early 2015. There are still places available for state schools in London to join the project – for enquiries e-mail grants@classicsforall.org.uk stating your interest in Capital Classics. Pupils are benefiting too, as revealed by comments from pupils who attended the Wadham College Summer School: Jessica Ofori-Forbes, 17, attends Mossbourne Academy, Hackney "I study biology and for that I need to be very logical. The ancient language [Latin] works in the same way for me and these subjects really complement each other. It gives people my age an insight into a completely different time and I think we can take a lot away from the ancient world." Vincent Hitchin, 18, attends Havering College, Havering "I'm looking to study History and Politics at university next year. Having studied Roman politics, I have grasped a better understanding of our own systems. Classics has also improved my skills at debating and understanding certain evidence that may be used in forming a persuasive argument." For more information about this project visit www.capitalclassics.org.uk Back to top |
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| Inside CfA Professor Christopher Pelling joins CfA |
 Professor Christopher Pelling | |||||
| Professor Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek, at the faculty of Classics, Christ Church college, Oxford has become a Patron of Classics for All. Professor Pelling is also President of the Hellenic Society and a representative for the Society at the Institute of Classical Studies Advisory Council. Educated at Cardiff High School, Professor Pelling was a Senior Scholar at Christ Church College, Oxford and then became a Fellow and Praelector in Classics at University College for nearly thirty years. His research interests include Greek and Latin historiography and biography, Greek literature and especially tragedy. Back to top |
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| Join the Classics fundraising campaign | |||||||||||
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| As Nicholas Barber describes in his letter above, we ask you to join the movement, and be part of our regular donors giving £100 pa or £1,000 pa. It makes such a difference when we can count on your donation year after year, so please consider a direct debit or pledge for annual giving. And do contact us if you would like to discuss legacy, in memoriam or tribute giving to CfA. Legacy: by including us among the beneficiaries mentioned in your Will, you can play a vital part in helping to ensure that our offer to state schools to introduce or expand Classics continues to spread and grow. In memoriam gift: e.g. the proceeds from a collection made in someone's memory, perhaps as a donation to Classics for All in lieu of funeral flowers, or making a donation each year through a Tribute Fund. Tribute Fund: this is an eloquent way of commemorating the life of a relation, friend or colleague who contributed to the world of Classics in some way. This fund can be allocated to particular grants given out by Classics for All each year, for as long as the Fund exists. We would be happy to discuss ideas for donations; please get in touch by emailing Jules Mann at jules@classicsforall.org.uk, or ring 07809 256839. Thank you for your support of our cause; please continue to share our news with your friends.
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| About us | |||||||
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 Principal Corporate Sponsors: Cambridge University Press |
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| Contact us |  |
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General Telephone: 0845 601 3739 • Email: contact@classicsforall.org.uk Classics for All is a Registered Charity (Number 1135379) and a Company Limited by Guarantee (Number 7182949) Registered in England and Wales |
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