This Wednesday, St Mary’s Church resounded with dramatic performances from Years 7, 8 and the Lower Sixth in our annual spoken Latin competition. The Lauda Sion competition has a rich history at our school, running for hundreds of years to celebrate the fact that Latin was indeed a spoken language in the ancient world. While Latin is mostly spoken today in church services or sung in hymns, the art of speaking Latin is an excellent way to support the learning (and celebration) of this classical language.

The competition sees pupils from each Latin set performing plays from their Suburani textbooks and competing in heats within their classes, with the very best groups performing in the Lauda Sion final. Competition in the final was fierce, with our judges (Miss Grimshaw, Mrs Bird, Mr Hayward and Dr Hayes) marking the pupils on the quality of their Latin pronunciation, their dramatic performances within their plays, and their use of costumes and props.

It was so hard to pick winners in such a fine crop of Latinists, but the winners were Issy I, Ellie MPD and Sofia C in 7F (for their strong performance of the “in latrina” story) and Juliet B-F, Phoebe C, Karishva G and Harriet S in 8H (for a dramatic rendition of “vox crudelis”). Our overall Lauda Sion champion this year was Frederika G in 8S for her stunning performance of the enslaved boy Currax in the “Currax et Quartilla” play. Well done to our winners, and to everyone who took part in our annual performance!

in nostra scuola lingua Latina semper vivet!

Dr Hayes, Head of Classics