Classics
Subject overview
Pupils who study the classical languages of Latin and Greek are uniquely able to gain direct access to the culture, history, literature and thought of civilisations which have inspired later generations.
Pupils have the opportunity to begin learning Latin in Lower Grammar (although a co-curricular Latin club is available in Figures and Rudiments). Greek is also introduced in a taster course for Lower Grammar and each language is available at GCSE, A level and IB. The languages are not easy, but Stonyhurst pupils have continually achieved excellent results: our pupils often enjoy the intellectual challenge! Pupils learn to read and appreciate original literature, engaging with cultures that have much in common with our own yet at the same time are very different.
All courses help learners to develop skills and intellectual flexibility, which will be useful for a wide range of other subjects and careers: classicists are certainly not just found in academia, but in every industry, up to and including board level. Indeed, NASA sees the value of classical knowledge and training in understanding how to develop interfaces between humans and autonomous systems!
New for September 2025
A level Classical Civilisation offers the opportunity to study the culture of Greece and Rome through key texts in translation and material culture such as works of art and archaeological sites. For pupils with experience of Latin, the course expands the scope of contact with the classical world, although it is an equally good option for pupils with no prior knowledge but who enjoy literature and history. As Professor Edith Hall writes in The Times, studying a classical subject “allows you to revel in a seminal 1,500 years of literature, drama, myth, religion, philosophy, science, medicine, inventions, history, propaganda, art, architecture and archaeological sites. Romans and Greeks built beautiful cities from northern England to Afghanistan, Ukraine to Algeria. Their cultural legacy marked the human race indelibly.”
