UK SUMMER CONFERENCE: SATURDAY 7th JUNE 2025

DATE, LOCATION, TIMING & COST

Date: Saturday 7th June 2025

Location: Museum of London, EC2Y 5HN

Timing: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sessions: see Timetable below

Cost: £49.00 for teachers; £25 for PGCE and ITT students. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Bursaries are available - please see our Grants and Bursaries page.

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PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE

 
10.00 – 10.20 Coffee and Registration
10.20 – 10.45
Welcome
New Roman resources  (Laura Turnage)
Latin in Schools Initiative  (Hannah Smith, Will Griffiths)
10.45 – 11.30
Session 1
ABest practices in language teaching: techniques for engaging students in longer stories  (Sara Aguilar)
BChoosing the right Latin course - how do HoDs make their decisions?  (Aisha Khan-Evans)
CA beginner's introduction to Suburani  (Will Griffiths)
11.30 – 11.45 Break
11.45 – 12.30
Session 2
AUsing trips to drive student engagement and motivation  (Julia Richards)
BAn introduction to digital support for Suburani  (Tony Smith)
CBest practices in teaching literature and culture - ten top tips  (Will Griffiths)
12.30 – 1.15 Lunch
1.15 – 2.00
Session 3
AExperimenting with teaching with AI  (Steve Hunt)
BHands Up for Greek! A new KS3 introductory reading course  (Hannah Smith & Tony Smith)
CStarting a Latin club - ideas, practicalities, and advice  (Will Griffiths)
2.00 – 2.45
Session 4
ACreative activities - fun and games  (Sukey Sleep and Hannah Smith)
BObject handling  (Laura Turnage)
CLatin beyond GCSE: Suburani Book 3  (Will Griffiths)
2.45 – 3.00 Break
3.00 – 4.00
Plenary
-Visualizing Ancient Rome in 3D (Prof. Matthew Nicholls)
4:00 p.m. End


SESSION DETAILS

Session 1

Best practices in language teaching: approaching longer stories

Using examples from Chapters 8 to 10 of Suburani, the session aims to present some practical examples, tested in the classroom, of ways to engage students in reading longer stories while maintaining a focus on existing and new grammatical structures.

Choosing the right Latin course - how do HoDs make their decisions?

When I started teaching, almost all departments used the CLC. With new courses or updates arriving in the last four or five years, departments have had the opportunity to reflect on their Latin courses and, in some cases, switch to another course or use more than one Latin course book. It therefore seemed like a good time to explore the factors influencing the decisions of Heads of Classics and others when making those choices. It is hoped that exploring these experiences, preferences and challenges might help other departments in their decision-making processes in the future.
This is a work in progress so if anyone would like to contribute to my project, please feel free to email me (Aisha Khan-Evans) for the consent form and then complete the questionnaire.

A beginner's introduction to Suburani

This session will introduce you to the Suburani Latin course. We'll look at its aims, some of its characters, and the language topics it covers. We'll explore the locations in which the storyline is set, the book's approach to myth and history, and the topics included in the civilization sections.

Session 2

Using trips to drive student engagement and motivation

This session will consider the value to Classics departments of domestic and overseas trips as a means of recruiting and retaining students, as well as promoting the subject to SLTs, parents and other stakeholders. We will explore the complex logistics of running trips, including popular destinations, the merits of different trip companies, costs and legal implications. Survey results will be used to identify potential trip pitfalls as well as provide ideas for amazing places and things to do that will inspire and enrich students in a way that cannot be done in the classroom.

An introduction to digital support for Suburani

Tony Smith from Hands Up Education will demonstrate the extensive digital support for Suburani. Find out about the Activebooks with story explorers for the whole course; interactive exercises that track student progress (vocabulary trainer, verb trainer, sorting, auto-marked translations); and games that are fun while practising Latin forms (Catena, Arepo, word search). There will be plenty of opportunity for questions.

Best practices in teaching literature and culture - ten top tips

We'll take a passage of original Latin literature, and an (unconnected) spread on Roman culture (from Suburani) to explore methods of approaching and differentiating them to actively engage a wide range of abilities.

Session 3

Experimenting with teaching with AI

How can we get away from AI generic worksheet mentality? Can we make texts and translations more accessible - and what do we gain (or lose) from the practice? How 'personal' is AI - and does that do away with the teacher? There'll be some demonstrations of ideas, but what I really would like is for people to bring their own points to the discussion.

Hands Up for Greek! A new KS3 introductory reading course

In this session we will demonstrate the first sample chapter of Hands Up's new Introductory Greek Course. Designed to be delivered by specialist and non-specialist teachers alike to students in Key Stage 3, this course offers a fun approach to the linguistic and cultural material. Like Suburani, it will be supported by digital resources. Join us to see what we have developed so far, to hear what is planned for the full course, and to offer your feedback and ideas.

Starting a Latin club - ideas, practicalities, and advice

This session is appropriate for schools thinking of introducing Latin. We'll briefly explore what the modern study of Latin involves to help guide thinking on how to shape and position a Latin club, and which students might be most interested in it. We'll consider the age and ability range of students, ideas for combining year groups together, how to pace a course, techniques for motivating students, options for advertising to students and parents, managing expectations around continuation, how to get resources and grants, and a range of other practical issues to help ensure your Latin club gets off to a strong start.

Session 4

Creative activities - fun & games

Join Hannah and Sukey to explore some of the fun and creative activities that are available on the Suburani site. We'll discuss how to link these activities to topics in the textbook and share ideas of how to use them in the classroom. Be prepared to be creative!

Object handling session with Museum of London

Laura Thomson-Turnage, of the Museum of London, will lead a hands-on session looking at, and exploring, Roman artefacts from the Museum's collection.

Suburani Book 3 - a theme-based introduction to literature

Suburani Book 3 launches in the UK this summer. The book is a themed Latin reader, which is intended to develop students’ ability to read and appreciate Classical Latin literature. The themes of its eight chapters are love, the environment, self-presentation, migration, morality and philosophy, avarice, the city, and imperialism. Each chapter contains about 160-180 lines of unadapted Latin literature (supported by notes, glosses, and questions), language notes, essays on cultural topics, an author, and a literary genre. Those with Suburani digital accounts will find the digital edition becomes available (at no additional charge). In this session we'll investigate the book, its digital support, and discuss ways it may be used in the pre- and post-GCSE classroom.

Plenary

Visualizing Ancient Rome in 3D

In this talk Matthew Nicholls will introduce his 3D digital model of Ancient Rome, which has been used extensively in teaching, broadcast, industry collaborations, and public-facing work in ancient history (including in the production of Gladiator II). The talk will explain how Matthew made and used this model, looking at both the research work and the process of digital modelling, an accessible tool which can be used in many teaching contexts.

If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.