Classics at Oxbridge

[twistyizzy]

DD is only 13 but has loved Classics since Yr 3/4. She is pretty set on doing it at GCSE, A-Level + uni. She already does Latin + classics at school, top of each class plus reads for her leisure and has just finished the Pat Barket + Natalie Haynes series. She is about to start The Odyssey. Zero pressure from us, this is all driven by her.
My dad went to Cambridge to study Classics and she is obsessed with doing the same. Again, zero pressure from us as DH and I went to RG but not Oxbridge.
So my question is, bearing in mind she could change her mind but is unlikely to, what can we do to support her in terms of supra curricular? I know Oxbridge do outreach, taster days etc but they seem to be aimed at Yr 12 + 13 only.
I'm not thinking of now but maybe Yr 10 + 11 to help her make decisions about A level options etc.

Can you afford to take her to Rome, Pompei, Athens etc? Get her to plan the routes and site visits well in advance? Take your dad too? Or one of the Greek islands? As they are dead languages I would be aiming to make them as real as possible. Also my 10 year old is currently reading Aristotle and loving it (read Sophie’s world a couple of years ago). It’s surprisingly accessible.

Are there any classical drama opportunities at her school? Even if she does lighting/costumes/music all may help. One of my DCs grammars seemed to have put on a lot of classical based plays in recent years to make it come alive.

There is an Intermediate Certificate in Classical Greek which is recognised by UCAS, etc. It examines up to Book 1 of John Taylor's Greek To GCSE, which is not too advanced and may be enjoyable for her over 3 years to take in her GCSE year. The Reading Greek course could also introduce her to Greek comedy in a way she might enjoy. If she has Latin already, she will definitely pick up Greek at either Oxford or Cambridge. The JACT Bryanstone Summer School is also a great place to find friends as keen on Classics as she is; there are also 3 plays in the fortnight and lectures every night - they have decent bursaries and Cambridge used to send their new students there before they joined.
https://intermediategreekcert.com/

Classics for All is oriented towards teachers but has some resources on their website she could look through. CfA North has really expanded recently - there might be some workshops and talks too. https://classicsforallnorth.org.uk/

There are some lovely myth retellings too - Adele Geras, and a big influence on me was a book called On the Seas to Troy by Caroline Cooney. Christa Wolf is heavy going but if she got through Silence of the Girls, it'll be fine! Jennifer Saint, Constanza Casati and Madeleine Miller are churning out retellings. Mary Renault is excellent at evoking the ancient world.

I also loved old Bettany Hughes documentaries! Tom Holland's old stuff (Rubicon, Persian Fire) is great.

Societies for Roman or Hellenic Studies might help with work experience in galleries or Classics departments.

Or if you can afford a tutor, some can act as mentors or hold sessions akin to Oxbridge tutorials to allow her to discuss her interests.

Perhaps she's beyond these but I enjoyed them both (they were given as transition work to my son ahead of taking his Classical Civilisations A Level):

A free OU course: Getting started on ancient Greek | OpenLearn - Open University

Mike Duncan's podcast "The History of Rome" which is on Spotify and Amazon music (lots of other platforms too I'm sure). The website has maps and docs to support the content: The History of Rome

I also have a DD that loves classics @twistyizzy and I am loving all the book recommendations - my DD is also 13 - would you say that the books above would be okay for that age?

Thank you 😊

They go to Rome in Yr 10 + Greece in Yr 11 if they do Classics at GCSE but yes we are having a long weekend in Rome in May. She's already done Pompeii and Herculaneum with us a few years ago but I'm always up for a trip to Italy 😄
Greece is on our hit list for 2026

Loving all these suggestions thank you everyone!

More local to you but you may have already been - vindolanda and all the sites on hadrians wall.

There is also a fair amount up by the Antonine wall in Scotland - we stayed near Stirling and went to visit quite a few locations. The eagle of the ninth is a good read if possibly a little young.

Newcastle also has a fair number of Roman sites.

There's a current Netflix series Barbarians about the Roman/germanic conflict which features actors actually speaking Latin. How accurate he Latin is I have no idea (I was watching for the German).

Oh I loved the Eagle of the ninth. Rosemary Sutcliffe, I think. Mary Renault also has some great Greek based ones on Theseus and on Alexander the Great.

Www.classicalassociation.org has lots of information, essay competitions and links to summer schools etc.

The Lindsey Davis 'Falco' detective books set in Rome are quite fun too. A fair bit of 1st century politics and intrigue in there.

Women’s Life in Greece and Rome is good if she’s into that side of things, it collects lots of different sources so gives a good overview but also different ideas of what primary sources she might want to read in the future. I can’t vouch for the appropriateness for a 13yo off the top of my head but I got given my copy by a teacher when I was first thinking of applying so it can’t be too bad!

Second the recommendation for a bit of philosophy if she’s thinking of Oxford- I only had to do one module of it but I had an entire philosophy interview as part of my application, the others were language and joint history/literature iirc. OU has some good introductory courses or a lot of the “for dummies” books are surprisingly great. She doesn’t need to be quoting Kant and Descartes all over the place, just get used to thinking in that mode a little bit.

Partially agree, but she deserves to enjoy being a kid before being introduced to the madness that is the pre Socratics. Half a term and I was out of there. It was very tiring turning up once a week at 9 am to find out the earth was made of something different to the week before. I went down the archaeology/history route, with lit and lang, obviously.

😄

Loads of great suggestions here, and to be honest all your daughter needs to do OP is keep it up so as to demonstrate sustained interest at the time of application. She sounds like she's got what it takes and I hope her passion flourishes.

Just in case any parent of a prospective classics student is reading this feeling intimidated, mine is doing classics at Oxford now having had no idea at 13 what to study, with no opportunity to study classics, philosophy or ancient languages, never having heard of online courses or competitions, and certainly no money to do JACT summer schools or holidays to the Med. More affordable/ accessible options suffice! Relevant reading as above, independent effort to learn the languages, visits to museums, podcasts, and as a bonus, getting on a widening participation Oxbridge summer school. The most important thing is to be able to talk about whatever you have done and show aptitude in interview (along with the small matter of academic ability 😉)

In the south of England obviously, but the Roman baths at Bath and museum are fabulous for making it real and obviously the British Museum

BBC radio 4 and TV has absolutely loads of excellent classical civilisations content.

My DS is 13 and read most of these and all good, we listened to The Iliad on a very long car trip this summer there seemed to be a lot of gore and nipples. 😆

And a lot of Achilles sulking in a tent. Part of the reason I picked C over O was that I'd heard at O you had to read the whole Iliad in Greek in the first year, and I hated it in translation, so it was a no from me.

And catalogues of ships. Dullsville. Like that Bible book that is basically so and so begat so and so and on and on for pages.

There were a lot of ships, some snoozing and the car was playing up it was a 20 hour trip so it was strangely soothing

Classics for All has great resources aimed at state schools and has links to mock trials of classical characters: classicsforall.org.uk/

Following up on philosophy, Peter Adamson’s podcast series history of philosophy without any gaps is excellent without being daunting and of course starts with presocratic philosophy.

Thank you @SuperGinger and @murasaki I agree about the Iliad and Odyssey! I’ve read Natalie Haynes but never Pat Barker and just wanted to check the ‘modern’ retelling was age appropriate.

She should only do things which she'll enjoy - she's too young to be doing things with an eye to their ticking some sort of 'supra curricular' box for Oxbridge. My youngest DD graduated this year from Oxford with a double first in Classics (the ab initio course, Course II). She read for sure but nothing beyond that. The key thing you need to get an offer and then do well is to be exceptional at languages and something of a polymath. Keep things chilled.