JACT Greek Committee Report To Council, October 2004

The Committee met in February and October. A list of members is appended.

Greek Project

The revision of Reading Greek is well under way. All members of the sub-committee overseeing it have commented in detail on draft material, and a meeting was held in Manchester in June. It is expected that Sections 1-8, containing the bulk of the teaching material, will be in near-final draft by Christmas. Three representatives will shortly be meeting CUP to discuss the design of the new larger-format volumes. Sales of titles in the Reading Greek series have remained buoyant. The Greeks all around us architecture project for primary schools has already received wide publicity in the north-eastern press, and is poised for wider circulation.

Inset day and mailing to schools

An Inset day on Teaching Greek, jointly organised by JACT and the Hellenic Society, will take place at Senate House on Saturday 12th February 2005 . This was advertised in the autumn JACT mailing, and all arrangements are in place.

Several publications directly or indirectly resulting from the previous Inset day in 1998 and the associated questionnaires (A Greek Anthology, Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek, Pocket Oxford Classical Greek Dictionary, Greek to GCSE ) have been favourably received and are continuing to enjoy good sales.

A wide-ranging pack of information about resources for Greek teaching is about to be made available, and will be circulated in the first instance to schools that have had candidates in any classical subject in the last two years.

Summer Schools

Bryanston had a record 290 pupils (studying Greek for two weeks), including seventy-three who had been before, twenty-nine already at university, and over 25% from maintained schools. The Sunderland/Newcastle & JACT summer school at Durham was also the largest ever, with sixty-six students of all ages (studying Greek and/or Latin for a week). Both summer schools were again highly successful.

Open University

Greek language courses continue to thrive, with currently about 400 beginners, and a particularly high retention rate among the 200+ students doing the intermediate-level course.

John Taylor - Secretary

JACT Greek Committee

The committee meets twice yearly (March and October) at Senate House, University of London. Membership is drawn from a wide range of schools and universities. The committee has a brief to support the teaching and learning of Greek in any way possible.

The recent 'Greek in Schools' initiative has been building up a picture of Greek teaching in schools and investigating ways of helping to increase pupil numbers. Various projects are under way to provide new teaching materials, and a collection of resources is being built up. Details can be obtained from:

Dr John Taylor
Tonbridge School
Tonbridge
Kent TN9 UP
e-mail: jst@tonbridge-school.org

Specifications

This pages contains links to the Examination Boards that offer Ancient Greek.

Summer Schools

See this page for details about what courses are on offer.

125th Anniversary of the Hellenic Society:
Programme of Awards and Activities for Schools

The Schools Sub-Committee of the Society is now preparing a special Programme of activities for Schools to mark our 125th anniversary season. We will be raising the profile of Greek and Hellenic Studies in schools with a Quiz and a national Schools Competition, investigating the mythology, literature, language, history and the heritage of Greece. We will consider special funding to schools who wish to put on a Greek-themed activity to help the Society celebrate its 125th anniversary, and schools will be circulated with ideas for speakers, drama groups, Greek Days and presentations on Greek life and culture. In conjunction with the Joint Association of Classical Teachers, the Society will be offering various teaching materials and special resources to schools, including books and materials generously donated by the Greek Embassy and the Centre for Acropolis Studies in Athens. The Sub-Committee is working with JACT to provide an information pack on supporting and introducing Greek teaching for schools; and we are investigating how a series of national events can utilise the Museum and Education services to aid primary teachers on Greek themes.