CLASSICS

UPPER SIXTH CLASSICS STUDY VISIT OXFORD

Six members of the Upper Sixth Form spent two days in Oxford as term began on the annual residential Classics Study Visit early in September.

he pupils, who hope to

Tstudy Classics, Classics and English or Ancient and Modern History at the top universities, were hosted by Brasenose College and stayed in the ancient college’s undergraduate rooms.

The busy two days began with a seminar with Dr Sillett of St Hilda’s, during which the pupils examined textual and archaeological sources in a quest to understand the impact of Cicero’s upbringing in Arpinum on his later career. The afternoon brought a session with the legendary Fr Smail on his beloved Virgil, examining the extent to which Aeneas is a reluctant hero through some close reading of the greatest Latin epic. In the evening, the Mods tutor at Brasenose, Dr Morgan, himself a doyen of Latin literature, showed the party around BNC, the pupils especially wowed by the sumptuous new library. There was just time for Mrs Hunter to lead a reading class in Ovid in her rooms overlooking Old Quad and the iconic Radcliffe Camera before a slap-up dinner and a relaxing evening in Oxford.

After breakfast beneath an excited unicorn in Hall, the pupils met Dr Mitchell of St Benet’s for a class on the late Roman republic, and thence made for St Anne’s to chat about admissions and Oxford life with Prof Leigh. A tour of the Ashmolean Museum’s remarkable Pompeii exhibition closed a splendid and demanding trip which saw the pupils’ minds tested and their ambition stirred for the arduous term ahead.

National Classics Essay Competition SUCCESS

Two Upper Sixth Classicists had news of success in a national history essay competition over the summer.

ead Girl Lottie, freshly

Hreturned from representing Scotland in the U19 Lacrosse World Championships, and

Rhianna, an international CrossFit champion, both entered the prestigious

Julia Wood Essay Prize, run by St

Hugh’s College, Oxford. Rhianna (who subsequently won a place to read

Classics at University College, Oxford) and Lottie (Classics & English at St

Hugh’s, Oxford) produced essays which explored works by Cicero and Sallust and the beginnings of the collapse of the Roman Republic in the first century

B.C.. Both girls’ entries were ‘highly commended’ by the judging panel of

Oxford dons and they were invited up to Oxford to meet them in October.

ESSAY PRIZE WINNERS: Inaugural Spivey Prize Essay

This term, a new opportunity for academic enrichment was launched at Caterham.

The Spivey Prize Essay, named in honour of the distinguished classical scholar and Old Caterhamian Dr Nigel Spivey, invited any willing members of the Sixth Form to subject themselves to an unseen 90-minute general essay, the title taken from the classical corpus.

In total 41 pupils elected to enter and were presented with a blank Word document and the choice of two questions:

“All bad precedents originate from measures good in themselves (Sallust). Discuss.” or “Not to know what happened before you were born is to be forever a child (Cicero). Discuss.”

Of the 41 essays, which approached the questions from a remarkable variety of angles, seven were shortlisted and sent to Cambridge for Dr Spivey himself to judge. In a very close-run race, our Head Girl, Lottie won the day and became the augural victrix of this exciting and demanding new competition.