Report on the Sunderland University and JACT Classical Summer School

held at St. John’s College Durham, 21st – 28th July 2007

The fourteenth summer school at Durham was attended by 60 students, a very slight reduction in numbers (details in Appendix 1) caused by last-minute illness and the floods. The students were enthusiastic and dedicated, which made the whole week immensely enjoyable. Even the unusually wet weather – an extreme contrast with last year’s heat wave - did not dampen spirits.

The College

This was our fourth year at St. John’s College and our welcome was as warm as ever.
The conference assistants are always extremely efficient and helpful and this year was no exception. The rest of the staff were always keen to help and support us in any way they could and this created a really friendly atmosphere right from the start. We are most grateful to all their staff who made a big contribution to the success of the week.

The college has been created out of a string of elegant town houses, with all their gardens above the wooded banks of the Wear.

The bedrooms are well equipped, with facilities to make hot drinks as well as ample space to study.For the staff, there was the usual room for relaxation and quiet work.Provision for teaching was good, sometimes in rooms which were splendid (the Tristram room) or full of character (as in the parsonage of St. Mary the Less). All students had access to the library which offered a quiet place for students to work even though, as a theology library, it is not ideally equipped for us. The college also has an spacious hall for lectures and performance, with an fine piano that was essential for the last night.

It is difficult to imagine how the catering staff manage to produce such consistently excellent food, but they do and we were extremely well fed again this year with a rich and varied menu and careful thought given to special dietary requirements.

The games room and T.V. lounges provided places for relaxation. The centre of Durham is very close to the college, the cathedral is even closer (just across the street) and Durham University Classics Department is but a few yards further. We try to encourage students to visit the Cathedral with our little Latin (and less Greek) quiz. There are plenty of interesting Latin epitaphs which offer elegant character descriptions or even a joke (the professor of Maths and keen astronomer – astrorum acerrimus indagator - who in the end travelled above the stars – super astra migravit). We also offer a guided tour in Latin for those who want a challenge. Durham also has botanical gardens and museums: some students enjoyed the Oriental Museum which houses a fine collection of art and artefacts from Egypt to China.

Teaching

This year we converted our Latin higher intermediate level into a class suitable for the new OU A397 course and the response was very promising with large numbers reading significant quantities of Aeneid II. This and the Greek group suitable for A396 are not exclusively designed for OU students and they seem to meet the needs of both OU and others extremely well. We reduced the number of groups for intermediate Greek this year since the two levels answered our needs.

We have been fortunate again to be able to field a virtually unchanged team of tutors. Gordon Cockburn, Viv Ellis, Jane Hornblower, Peter Jones, James McKay, Samantha Newington, Adrian Spooner and Gaby Wright all returned, and Donald Hill came back after his absence last year. To all the tutors I am immensely grateful. They are always prepared to help students and, indeed, to turn their hand to almost anything. Through their enthusiasm, experience and willingness to support each other, they are the driving force that makes the Summer School a success.

Lectures and Other Activities

We also owe a great debt of thanks to our lecturers:     

Peter Jones: Rich Famous and Doomed AD 79
Edward Harris: Greek Warfare
Scott Scullion: Fate and the Gods in the Greek World
Vicky Hedley: et tu, Brute: the assassins of Caesar
Mary Beard: The Roman Triumph

Housesteads was the major site we visited along with a rather wet Carrawburgh Mithraeum on our Tuesday expedition. We must thank English Heritage for free admission to Housesteads.

On Wednesday the Hellenic Bookservice made their usual visit. They are a regular and very popular feature of the week and we are most grateful for their efficiency in supplying all our book requirements and students’ orders. The range of stock they bring is always impressive and thoughtful.

The ‘Last Night of the Summer School’ was another memorable occasion. Pirates of the Greekbeginners was a triumphant rendering of ‘the insurance fraud’ complete with 2 tutors as ‘the sea’ and only ‘not yet’ disturbing the smooth flow of Greek as Zenothemis hurled himself into the waves too soon. There was music for flute and saxophone,  accompanied on piano, and Despina's aria in uomini, in soldati from Cosi fan tutte sung with great maturity and poise by a student whose mother, now a Classics teacher, had been a student with us some years ago. The ingenious conversion of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ into a parade of tropes and the wonderful version of the Danae myth through contemporary dance were other highlights which showed just how diverse the talents of our students are.

Recruitment

Our main advertising is through JACT, with an enclosure in the January copy of JCT and details on the JACT website. We are most grateful for JACT’s continuing support.

We would also like to thank all those teachers and lecturers who encouraged their students to apply,but we have again not recruited as many school age students as we usually do.  This should not deter 6th form students applying next year since our courses are designed to be suitable for them. Besides we always have a vibrant group, and the range of ages works surprisingly well. For those at school to mix with undergraduates and older students  - especially those in their 70s or 80s - is often inspirational.

Many students have returned (one for the 13th year) and more promise to return. As happened last year, OU students tell us that they only found us by chance or at the last minute.They recognise that we have something unique and valuable to offer them since a week of concentrated study and direct contact with a tutor usually makes them feel much more confident in their abilities.Some this year are determined to help us spread the word and have taken initiatives themselves to reach out more widely to the OU community. We might consider advertising.

Among our students we had three potential recruits for PGCEs, one enjoying the support of the new Friends of Classics scheme to encourage entry into the profession.

Accreditation

Because we are part of the programme of Sunderland University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning (in Newcastle), we must have assessment arrangements so that the course can be accredited. Students produce written work (for example a translation or language exercises) which enables them to earn 10 Sunderland University credit points at Level 1. These are banked at Sunderland University, but may be transferred at the request of another institution.

Financial Support

The Summer School is absolutely dependent on the generous financial support of various bodies. Grants were provided by Friends of Classics, JACT Greek Project, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, Cornelia Starcks, Leonard Shaw and the Cromer-Murray fund. To these we owe a deep debt of gratitude for making the Summer School possible. 16 students were helped with bursaries, many of which were very substantialand both the lecture programme and the field trip to Hadrian’s Wall were also supported by the bursary fund. We also bought 10 copies of the new edition of Reading Greek which was much appreciated by students who found it more user friendly than the first edition through the improved layout and design. We hope to be able to increase our stock next year

2008 and a new name

The Summer School will be held at St. John’s College, 19th -26th July 2008. We have booked the same week at St. John’s for 2009.

From 2008 we will be known as the Durham Latin and Greek Summer School. We will still be run by Sunderland University and supported by JACT, but the name will make more explicit where we are and what we offer.

Finally I would like to thank the many friends and supporters of the summer school who have helped to make everything run smoothly. Peter Jones has raised funds and has given advice and encouragement throughout the year. The staff from the Centre for Lifelong Learning in Sunderland University shouldered most of the burdens of organisation with their usual patience and good humour. Jane Gilhespie deserves particular thanks for redesigning our application forms to save students filling in a registration form on arrival. She has also created spreadsheets and generally helped  the administration to run smoothly.

Alan Beale
Course Director 2007

Appendix 1

Number of students                                                   60
School pupils (from maintained schools)                     5
School pupils (independent schools)                          13
Undergraduates                                                         12
Postgraduates                                                            4
OU students                                                               12
Other                                                                          14

Age range                                 16-84

16-18                                      15
19-21                                      9
22-60                                      16
Over 60                                   20

Appendix 2

Teaching groups