Farnborough Hill girls teach Latin at St Bernadette's Primary School

Published on isbi School News dated Tuesday 19th of April 2011

For the past two years Farnborough Hill students have been visiting St Bernadette's Primary School in Farnborough once a week, in order to provide Year 5 and 6 children with a taste of Latin. Sixth Form Classics students, Ruth Simmons, from Fleet, and Francesca Pipkin, from Farnham, guided by their teacher, Danni O'Laoire, have taught pupils Latin using the Minimus scheme. This is a unique Latin course for younger children based on a real family who lived at Vindolanda in 100AD: Flavius, the fort commander, his wife Lepidina, their three children, assorted household slaves, their cat Vibrissa - and Minimus the mouse!

Latin provides a valuable opportunity for students to understand more about the structure of English and to prepare for learning a modern foreign language at secondary school. Edward Baldwin, Deputy Headteacher at St Bernadette's, says 'The Latin club has been a fantastic addition for our children. They are really keen to take part and love learning in such a fun way. The girls from Farnborough Hill have led the sessions in a lively way and have made a real connection with the children. It's been great to see the link between primary and secondary schools grow through this project.'

This year the children have been entered for the national Minimus Mythology competition. Students were asked to use their knowledge from their reading (in Latin) of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus and to create from this a piece of creative writing or a piece of art work. As you can see their work was imaginative and really brought the myth to life. We have great hopes for their success!