Classics
Classics at Ashley Down Primary School Aims (intent)
The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:
• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied. At Ashley Down we deliver on the above aims through a Latin programme [Maximum Classics] in years 3-6. Latin lessons include both language learning and classics (study of Ancient Rome and Greece), enabling them to make substantial progress in the language. Lessons provide a balance of spoken and written language, enabling children to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing.
What it looks like here (implementation)
At Ashley Down, each KS2 year group teaches 3 terms of Classics per year from the Maximum Classics programme of study consisting of sixteen units. This is still in the stages of being rolled out so that years 3-6 teach units building upon content taught the previous year. Maximum Classics’ introductory unit explores the history behind English’s links to Latin and Ancient Greek. Vocabulary used on the course is selected to facilitate the exploration of interplay between Latin and English vocabulary and every lesson incorporates games or activities drawing on this. The course also tracks KS2 elements such as word class, tense and auxiliary verbs using the same terminology used in English SPaG teaching. The Maximum Classics scheme also incorporates aspects of classical civilisation that complement and enrich the whole KS2 curriculum, integrating cultural aspects from across the Roman and Greek worlds in the form of dedicated cultural lessons, usually one or two per Unit.