We are currently developing an introductory course in Ancient Greek, capable of being delivered by specialist and non-specialist teachers alike, to students in Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14).

The introductory course will consist of a textbook of 8 chapters (approx. 200 pages), together with a supporting website which will provide teaching support materials and interactive resources for students. The course will be similar, therefore, to the first half of Suburani Book 1.

The length of the course is designed to be deliverable in one year, on about one hour or so per week, making it suitable for an after-school club, or as a timetabled course with minimum scheduling impact, but schools will be able to deliver the course at whatever pace and scheduling they choose.

The linguistic content of the first six chapters is currently expected to cover:

We will discuss with teachers at summer 2025 conferences whether Chapters 7 and 8 should explore the present tense of contracted and middle verbs (thereby releasing more vocabulary for use in stories), or the imperfect and/or aorist of -ω verbs. The course will not presume the prior or ongoing study of Latin.

The language is presented within the cultural context of 5th century BC Athens (around the year 423 BC).

A story-based inductive reading approach is being used, where students are presented with simple step-by-step linguistic developments and encouraged to draw conclusions about the relationship between form and meaning. These steps are then be consolidated with explicit language manipulation activities.

The overall focus is on developing an enjoyment of Ancient Greek, an awareness of a small number of cultural topics and a high degree of competence in a limited number of linguistic elements. We hope that students who follow the course will therefore emerge with a highly positive attitude towards Ancient Greek and Ancient Greece, and with a solid linguistic platform on which to build if they choose to continue with their studies.