Inner-City Latin

The Latin Programme's mission is to teach an innovative Programme of literacy through Latin in state schools. We strive for Latin to be embedded in both the curriculum and culture of the schools we work in. We teach Latin because it is the most orderly, logical, disciplined, structured, systematic, and consistent grammar in existence. Latin is also the base of over half of the English language. Learning Latin dramatically broadens pupils' vocabulary while deepening their understanding of language. 2016-17 marked a significant year for the Programme and our pupils. On average, 18% of our pupils were eligible for free school meals. Despite facing disadvantage, 86% achieved their expected levels in literacy in the end of KS2, compared to the national average of 75%. Our Programme is streetwise, focused on impact and dynamic, engaging children through raps, songs, games and interactive storytelling sessions. Our mission is to deconstruct the imposing and daunting grandeur of Classics; we are liberating it from its ivory tower and breaking down prejudices.

Overall our classes are considered underachieving according to usual criteria: a high number of children receive free school meals (FSM), have English as an additional language (EAL), are from ethnic-minority backgrounds and/or have special educational needs. Therefore, our targets have always been realistic. But the results far surpassed our expectations. By the end of 2017, 92% of students were at the expected level for Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation compared to the national average of 77%. We find that the greater the number of years of the programme, the better the results. Students who do Latin for one year do well last year, but results for students who have experienced three or more years of the programme showed a 10% overall improvement. For 2017-18 we’ve hired a data officer to ensure that the programme is having a remarkable effect on every pupils’ progress in literacy.

Pupils also feel the impact for themselves. In our end of year survey (2017) 94% of our Year 5 pupils felt that knowing Latin supported their learning in other subjects, esp. MFL, English literacy and history. Teachers also commented on the benefit of the Programme for developing confidence, resilience and for providing a leveler for EAL pupils. Even OFSTED commented that the Programme challenged and stretched pupils by helping them to ‘think hard about the structure of sentences’ (OFSTED Report, St Monica’s, Hackney 2017).

 After ten years, our focus is on the future with a film project based on Latin literature (Virgil’s Aeneid) and creating an interactive section on our new website – launching in May 2018 – to showcase the dynamism and creativity of our pupils. As one Year 4 pupil from Hackney says, “Latin is epic – you learn everything!” (2017).

 The Latin Programme’s full 2016-17 Impact Report will be available to download on our new website in May 2018.