Aims of the Department
General aims of the department within the WGS philosophy
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To encourage enthusiasm, scholarship and respect for staff, students and the
working environment.
To acknowledge the importance of every individual and to encourage each
student to fulfil his/her potential.
To provide challenges that will motivate students and staff.
To contribute wherever possible to cross-curricular themes.
To contribute to the use of ICT in the school curriculum.
To reinforce communicative skills needed across the curriculum, i.e. listening,
speaking, reading and writing.
To reinforce other skills such as analysis, classification, interpretation, summary,
translation etc..
To promote personal and social skills through cooperation in pair, group and
whole class work, as well as to promote self-discipline in independent learning.
To contribute to whole school policies on equal opportunities and multi-cultural
awareness by the objective study of a culture foreign to every student, i.e. ancient
Rome and Greece.
To contribute to the school’s provision for students with specific learning
difficulties or other special needs.
Specific Aims of the Department
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To provide students with a positive, successful and rewarding experience of
studying Latin by providing them with the resources, encouragement and
teaching they need to acquire a firm knowledge and understanding of the
language, and by sharing the teacher’s enthusiasm for all aspects of the ancient
world.
To promote an analytical and explicitly grammatical approach to language
because Latin requires pupils to read in a fundamentally different way; this is a
transferable skill across the curriculum and also provides students with skills
valuable in later life. It also provides a grammatical framework and vocabulary
of technical terms for Latin and all other languages; Latin frequently deals with
grammatical topics in a more explicit and structured way, often before other
languages, e.g. subject, object, imperfect tense, subjunctive, subordinate clause
etc..
To promote an understanding of Latin as the foundation of many European
languages, and a key element in the history of English by making explicit
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connections in vocabulary and grammar between Latin, modern foreign
languages and English.
To promote interest in, and understanding and appreciation of, the ancient
world using descriptions in class, displays, written projects, dramatic
presentations: these are mainly based on the material provided by the Cambridge
Latin Course, but where possible students should be encouraged to do research of
their own, in libraries or on the internet. In year 11 and beyond, the study of
Latin literature, in translation or in the original, is an excellent way of
encouraging the students to understand the way of life and values of Roman
society.
Organisation of the Department
Curriculum (from 1st September 2014)
Latin
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Years Eight and Nine
Students can opt to take Latin from Year 8, with two 35 minute lessons and one
30 minute homework per week.
Year eight students begin with CLC Book 1, of which all the grammatical
elements should be completed by the end of the year.
Year nine continue with CLC Book 2, concentrating more on grammar and on
consolidating what they learned in the previous year. Motivation is key with this
year group in order 1) to encourage uptake of Latin in year 10 and 2) to
encourage those who are not continuing to keep working and thereby achieve
well in the end of year examination.
Year 9 have two 35 minute lessons per week (still constrained into one double by
the option blocks of which Latin is no longer part) and one 30 minute
homework.
Both years learn end of stage vocabulary from the relevant stages, with the aim
that they know the prescribed word list from Stages 1-18 by the end of the two
years.
Both years, where appropriate, should cover the background topics introduced
by CLC, using as stimuli the relevant sections of the textbook, corresponding
parts of the CLC website, the Latin stories they have read, and their own
research. This is a good opportunity for independent learning. It also enables
those who struggle with the language to show and develop additional skills.
Years Ten and Eleven (GCSE)
 Students who have opted for Latin in Years 8 and 9 can choose to carry on into
GCSE. There are four 35 minute lessons per week and two 40 minute
homeworks.
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Year Ten continue with CLC Books 3, 4 and 5, which cover the necessary
grammar in a way with which the students are familiar and pushes them
linguistically significantly beyond what is needed for GCSE.
By January of Year 11 students move on to Essential GCSE Latin (John Taylor,
BCP), which deals more specifically with the GCSE prescription.
Weekly learning and testing of the prescribed vocabulary list starts at the
beginning of Year 10.
In Year 11 students should be consolidating and putting into practice the
knowledge gained so far. In terms of language they should build their
confidence using Latin Stories: A GCSE Reader (Cullen, Dormandy, Taylor) and
past examination papers.
Set texts are started in Year 11, using the OCR Latin Anthology for GCSE. It is felt
that literature should be left until this stage to allow maturation of language
skills in preparation for the greater demands of reading authors who use
language idiomatically.
The course is OCR J281 (Full Course): A401 Latin Language 1, A402 Latin
Language 2, A403 Latin Prose Literature, A 404 Latin Verse Literature. Assessment is
terminal and there is no coursework.
Years Twelve and Thirteen
 The AS course is OCR H039: F361 Latin Language, F362 Latin Verse and Prose
Literature. Assessment is terminal and only available in June.
 The A2 course is OCR H439: F363 Latin Verse, F364 Latin Prose. Assessment is
terminal and only available in June.
 In year 12 there are 7 x 35 minute lessons per week. Five of these are contact
time, with two dedicated to guided but individual study due to staffing
constraints.
 There is currently no Latin in Year 13.
Classical Civilisation
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Years Twelve and Thirteen
The AS course is OCR H041: F382 Homer’s Odyssey and Society, F384 Greek
Tragedy in its Context. Assessment is terminal and only available in June.
The A2 course is OCR H441: F389: Comic Drama in the Ancient World, F390 Virgil
and the World of the Hero. Assessment is terminal and only available in June.
In Year 12 there are 7 x 35 minute lessons per week.
In Year 13 there are 8 x 35 minute lessons.
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