Classical plays and reading competitions have a long history at Francis Holland School.

The competition for Latin was established in the 1930s, and the Sheila Griffiths memorial fund gave money to fund a prize for Latin verse-speaking, known as the Lauda Sion prize. On 6th February, in keeping with the tradition of the school, we watched girls from Years 8, 9 and 10 perform short plays in Latin from the Cambridge Latin Course. We also heard some original Latin poems read by Karina Vasiliades and Nicola Medicoff in Year 9. The supportive atmosphere was one of celebration and the girls enjoyed themselves immensely. The Latin language certainly did not seem dead in SW1!

We were delighted to welcome as our adjudicator Mrs Mary Staniforth. Mrs Frankland, a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, has been Head of Classics at Bradfield College near Reading and the West London Free School in Hammersmith. She is currently Head of Classics at Sydenham High School GDST. It was very difficult to decide on the winners, as the standard was so high.

Year 8

Winners: Katy Glazebrook; Isabella Lalatta; Maria Longo Garcia; Caitlin Sinclair

Highly Commended: Adelina Donaldson; Lettie Maurin; Grace Wormald; Alizee Zablith

Year 9

Winners: Sloane Carroll; Marietta Goulandris

Highly Commended: Mina Polo; Isabella Thompson

Certificates were also presented to the Year 10 students: Sarah Cosgrove; Constance Gesser; Safa Ghanem; Anna Giluch; Ellie Hancox and Maria Laiseca

A huge thank you to all involve for their hard work and commitment.

R. Smith (Head of Classics)