Latin tuition to be beamed into schools by video link

Starting this month, the Cambridge Schools Classics Project (CSCP) is employing a full-time staff member who will teach Latin to dozens of young people who would not otherwise have the opportunity. The CSCP is part of the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education and aims to make the classical world accessible for as many students as possible, whatever their age or background.

Verity Walden, the new Latin Learning Manager, will beam her lessons into classrooms around the country using video-conferencing equipment, teaching pupils face-to-face without ever necessarily meeting them for real.

Organisers hope that the approach will reawaken an interest in Latin in some schools where it is no longer taught on the syllabus.

The CSCP has organised video lessons on a one-off basis for individual students or classes in the past. The decision to start a full-time service is in response to rising demand and the popularity of the technique. At the moment between 50 and 60 pupils are signed up to learn Latin by video link.

The method has already helped a sixth-former study the subject to AS-level while she was in Italy for training with the Juventus women’s football team. Another school which took up the video conferencing service is now employing a part-time specialist Classics teacher because of growing interest among its pupils.

“Hopefully by bringing in Verity we will be able to provide more video conferencing and help more people access the subject,” project director Will Griffiths said. We are not doing lectures; it’s just like a normal class. The children are fully involved, and the whole thing works both ways in real time.”

Project staff say the method has met with a positive response from pupils, with whom they have struck up a good relationship even though they are often teaching from a room several hours’ drive away.

Teaching by video is not seen as a long-term solution to the lack of Latin teaching in schools or the decline of Latin as a subject. It could, however, inspire more young people to study the language and temporarily help meet the demand for specialist teachers.

“We would always say that a specialist teacher in the classroom is preferable, because they will know the students better and can therefore make Latin more exciting, interesting and relevant to the particular students in that school,” Will said.

“If we can use this to build up enough interest to justify the appointment of a full or part-time Latin teacher in the school, then that is good news. And if we can help set up a Latin department where there has never been one before, that is a real success story.”