Latin & Classical Civilisation

Latin

Walhampton’s Classics department enables every child from Year 6 onwards to study the language, history and way of life of the ancient Greeks and Romans. All pupils in year 6 follow Barbara Bell’s child friendly Minimus course followed by Nick Oulton’s ‘So You Really Want To Learn Latin’ series. Children in years 7 and 8 then either continue with the Latin language to CE or study Classical Civilisation. Year 8 scholars have the opportunity to learn beginners Greek. This is all achieved by a combination of rigorous learning and up to date modern methods with plenty of fun interactive lessons.

The School firmly believes that Latin is a valuable study in its own right but its wider benefit cannot be ignored. The reasons to learn a ‘dead language’ in the twenty first century are too many to list, but here are just a few:

Latin is the natural follow on from Phonics. Young children learn the word hundred, but it is only by learning that the Latin word for hundred is centum that they can understand the meaning of words such as century, centimetre and centurion.

Not only does Latin provide the root words for all modern science, but it is the language of law, politics, logic, and theology. While a large number of words in science come from Greek, law is the exclusive domain of the Latin language. All legal terms are Latin. The Romans excelled in the practical arts of law and government, and it is from them that we derive our legal and political language.