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.

I get that thanks but this really is being driven by her and she has asked what other things she can read/do. Hence if she wants to do it then might as well help support her IF she wishes to do Oxbridge. Like I said in my original post, she may change her mind over the next few years anyway, so no pressure from us but was just wanting suggestions which may help support her if she decides to stick with her current route.

What I would say is that all these ideas are lovely and brilliant in terms of helping your daughter support a growing interest in Classics. However, please don't feel that you need to do all this in order to get a place at Oxbridge to study Classics.

Yes definitely, I saw that you stressed that. Just a general point because some of the suggestions - especially if too many are acted on - could be quite intense.

Edited to say that my post crossed with the one immediately above. That's really what I intended by mine.

Your DD sounds delightful, OP. I am very glad she is leading on all of this

As a former Russell Group admissions tutor, I still think there is some risk of burnout, however. The idea of basing an activity around walking Hadrian’s Wall, or doing other activities that will embed a physical component in Classics self-study, may help to mitigate this.

Again, the most important thing is for DD to follow her interests. But with one eye on university applications, activities which (a) have achieved good recognition and/or (b) provide written feedback/assessment and/ir certification may be somewhat helpful.

The UCAS application will have been revised before your DD applies, but there should be ways of continuing to list supra-curricular activities. The ones that can be assessed objectively often carry a bit more weight, at least ahead of interview

Hi yes we are frequent visitors to Hadrians wall/Vindolanda etc as her passion started with the Romans at around 5 years old and developed from there. She also loves History so I could see her going down that route too.
We just want to support her with anything she enjoys.
Booking a long weekend in Rome for May + maybe last minute to Greece in Autumn

The suggestions by everyone weren't ever intended to be a year long cramming course! She's 13, just ideas to suggest over the next few years if she's still interested. I hope you have lovely holidays, and her interest keeps up if she wants it to.

Some lovely ideas here - just one more thought - I did a joint honours classics and english course at Oxford - from a state school. I had A-Level latin and GCSE greek (in my own time) but you don't have to.

It's a genuinely special course as it has joint 'genre' papers - or it did - where you look at Tragedy/Epic etc in both languages, as well how Classics influenced English lit, and translation. I loved it. It's now a three year course if you have the language and four if you don't.

Worth a look if she also loves English lit, or grows to!

There are plenty of ancient cities in Turkey as well, which can be combined with a beach holiday for the family! We found Ephesus to be stunning, although somewhat reconstructed. There’s also Hissarlik (sp ?), aka Troy, which figures large in the Iliad and Odyssey. (I’ve not been there, as trips are always booked up, when we go to our favourite Greek island).

We also thought Ostia and the catacombs were well worth a visit, if in Rome.

The ATG is putting on “Elektra” on tour around December/January, iirc.

I enjoyed “Circe” recently (Madeleine Miller?); and am now reading “Imperium” by Robert Harris atm, a fictional account of the life of Cicero; but it’s reminding me of some of his works.

That sounds like a great course. I liked the multidisciplinary things in mine. E.g
I took a finals paper called Time, which included everything from Heraclitus to Stephen Hawking, one of my final exam essays was 'tick tock, tick tock, time is a stream or a rhythm, discuss'.

Once I'd finished panicking, it was interesting to do.

I do not want to be reminded of Cicero, the tedious self pitying git 🤣🤣

Classics and English is a great course if you are predominantly interested in the literary side and does let you study the development of literary genres across time. What it doesn’t let you do is the history, philosophy and archaeology (you can do one paper from those for Finals if you want). I think it is great for people who can’t decide between which period of literature they enjoy most - if her main interest is the ancient world, Classics sole offers a more interdisciplinary and in depth approach.

I love this and now am of course curious which you picked!

Hahaha I love Cicero precisely because he’s such a whiny little bitch

I do not want to be reminded of Cicero, the tedious self pitying git 🤣🤣

🤣🤣 “Civis Romanus sum” on repeat “In Verrem” nearly drove us up the wall. I felt like throttling him myself!

Rhythm in the end, cyclical.

He was all 'my friends, why aren't you working harder to get me out of exile'

They were all 'and breathe, and party time!'

I liked Cicero’s Latin though!

Oxbridge have fantastic outreach programmes for state school DC, particularly for subjects like Classics.

Well it was easy. It did have that going for it. Not much else though.

We are at an independent as no state around here does classics or Latin

Have a look at the Oxford outreach page:

https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/outreach

Schools can request an online talk from an academic. There are various competitions that children can enter - eg graphic novels or creative writing. You can see the winners of the last couple of years.

Agree with others that as your DD is so self motivated she could fixate on achieving the ambition of Oxbridge. It is of course important to emphasise to her that what she chooses to explore from these ideas should only be for enjoyment. I think the haphazardness of interests arising from enjoyment and imagination is very much a positive

It’s like Tony Attwood (a leading expert in his field) says

”If you can’t explain concepts in plain simple language, then you don’t really understand them!”

That puts her on a different trajectory to state schoolers for sure.

DD4 was at a state school which offered no classical language even at GCSE, and no Ancient History even at GCSE. MFL were also thin on the ground. She had no idea which way to go until her Y11 Parents' Evening when we had to wait for a talkative parent to finish massively overrunning their five minute slot with the RE teacher. We got bored so started reading notices on the wall, one of which was a Cambridge outreach poster asking 'Do You Enjoy Art, History, Literature and Language? If so....'. And that made absolute sense for DD4 who was pulled in all those directions. She started to read around a bit after that and it confirmed her in that choice. Her peers at Oxford came to Classics in all sorts of different ways.

I think at the moment there's a push to increase the numbers of state school applicants who come to Classics fresh, as DD4 did. But I can't quite see certain colleges and tutors giving up their preference for applicants from big name schools who've been immersed in the subject for years. DD4 was warned off one particular college which has that reputation but her favourite college - which was prettier anyhow, with a stronger reputation for Classics and a larger cohort - was fortunately very welcoming to those with no background in the subject. She was obviously able to compete with those Course I applicants eventually, after a baptism of fire and took both Latin (to Mods) and Greek (after Mods).

Things are changing all the time and five years can be a long time with courses and admissions, so the shape of the courses and admissions policy could well be different from the way both are now. Presumably the goal is balance, but that does mean quite a push to recruit a higher proportion of state school applicants. And then they have to stay the ab initio course, which seems to be seriously tough. If more start to flounder then that approach can't last.

She isn't at a big name indy. A northern , small + rural one that no-one outside of the immediate area will know of. However one of our reasons for going indy was the offer of Classics + Latin. It should be offered in all state schools too. The Latin is definitely helping her with English + MFL.