This week has been FHS’s first Classics Week, a celebration of all things related to the ancient world! Pupils have been able to enjoy a number of events related to ancient Greece, Rome and Persia.
On Tuesday we welcomed Mr Russo, one of our FHS parents who is also a talented numismatist, and had an excellent session in Classics Club learning about how Roman emperors used coins for propaganda. We even got to handle coins held by Romans thousands of years ago.
Then Classics academic and popular author Emily Hauser gave a digital lecture on Wednesday about her new book on Ancient Love Stories. Those who attended asked excellent questions about the recent renaissance of female retellings of ancient stories, and how Dr Hauser found time for her work alongside her academic lifestyle.
Our Outreach Superstars of the Week this week are our Classics Prefects, Eva F, Sofia H and Chiara NS, who ran a wonderful Classics-themed playground takeover (with the expert help of the Classics Department!) on Thursday to raise money for Classics For All, which promotes the study of classical subjects in state schools across the UK.
Beth W ran a tricky one-on-one quiz; Rose P and Helena T-C played Scrabble… in Latin; Eva F and Mrs Bird hosted a bake sale; Andrea J, Sophie H and Angelina P-M translated your names into Greek; and Dr Hayes was in charge of the stopwatch for the ‘how fast can you put on a Toga’ competition. Congratulations to our winners, Daria H and Eleanora V (7H) and Luna C (7F) who managed to don a toga in a remarkable 2 seconds!
Finally on Friday Professor Lynette Mitchell visited us from the University of Exeter to deliver a lunchtime talk on “Inventing the barbarian and creating a Greek political identity”. This lecture gave our A level Classical Civilisation students much food for thought on an area that they study with Mrs Bird.
Over the course of the week Dr Hayes also delivered an assembly to each year group exploring how the classical myths encourage us to be more compassionate individuals, and showcased some examples of contemporary figures with backgrounds in the Classics. Did you know, for instance, that the CEO of GSK did a Classics degree at university? We hope that all of the events this week brought out some of the best things about studying the ancient world, and we look forward to seeing where Classics Week 2025 will take us next year! Special thanks go to our outstanding prefects Chiara, Eva and Sofia (all in the LVI), who worked so hard to put together an outstanding programme of events.
Dr Hayes, Head of Classics
