Year 6 Choir trip to Edinburgh

to a live audience since January 2020 when they were in Year 4. Although slightly nervous, they rose to the occasion and gave a superb performance which resulted in a standing ovation! Some of the repertoire included ‘Storm’ written by Year 6 pupil Tom and arranged the cathedral was acoustically wonderful and our voices really echoed in there.

I loved our visit to the waterpark which was a lot of fun (especially Mr Doyle screaming down the raft ride). When the morning of the visit to the zoo dawned with a heavy cloud cover, I thought all the animals would be inside their little private enclosures indoors, but not all of by Mrs Redhead, ‘The Lighthouse’, ‘Wings of Hope’ and ‘Kussimama.’ The choir also visited Dynamic Earth, The National Museum of Scotland, a waterpark and also Edinburgh Zoo.

Mrs T Redhead Head of Junior School Music them were. I especially liked seeing the pandas and tigers and some of the sloths and armadillos. After the whole trip, I was slightly sad that I didn’t get more time in Edinburgh. I want to say thank you to all the staff for organising this trip - Mrs Sedman, Mrs Redhead, Mr Doyle, Miss Watson and Mr Bloomfield.

Ram Year 6

The Classics thrive at Hymers

2022 marked a groundbreaking year for the Classics Department. After a hiatus of over 35 years, students were entered for a public examination in Ancient Greek.

Our Year 11 students, James, Rhea and Lucy had been studying the subject in Greek Club for two years and jumped at the chance to take part in the first year of a new pilot Greek qualification – the Intermediate Certificate. The results were fantastic with all three gaining a distinction and we were proud as a Classics Department that Hymers had been given the chance to take part in this new qualification which is now planned for roll out more widely on a national basis in future years.

Learning Ancient Greek is an exciting challenge and opportunity for those students who have an interest in the culture, history and literature of Ancient Greece and have a passion for the intricacies of language. Not all of our Ancient Greek students are Latin students too, although this does give a distinct advantage, given the similarities in the two languages grammatically. 2022 also saw Kiki, a Year 10 student, win first place in the Beginners Greek speaking competition for her dramatic rendition of Herodotus’ description of the battle of Thermopylae. This was a superb achievement!

Our Classics Department will now be offering Intermediate Greek and GCSE Greek (off-timetable) as well as GCSE and A Level Latin and

A Level Classical Civilisation. In fact our first cohort of A Level Classical Civilisation students also achieved outstanding results this year with all four candidates gaining an A or an A*.

The Classics continues to have a relevance and a fascination for our students and we are thrilled with the growing interest and participation in our subjects. Floreant linguae antiquae!

Mrs S Dickinson Head of Classics

Hymers English and Psychology A Level students took part in a joint trip to London in November visiting a variety of subject-related sites in a busy, activity packed two-day trip.

English students, from both A Level