By Laura Jenkinson-Brown, Course Leader for Classical Civilisation, Churcher’s College
I’ve been a fan of the new OCR Classical Civilisation GCSE since its arrival three years ago – I’ve found it rigorous and challenging, with broader knowledge and with great options for study. As the course leader in my department, I’ve been able to teach the new Classical Civilisation GCSE for three years to students of a wide range of ability. I’ve been able to refine and rewrite my resources for our modules, Myth and Religion and Homeric World, with each new class, and develop their knowledge and ability to use it in an exam scenario with class and homework activities based on the exam examples and original mock papers to add to the (as-yet limited) past papers available. Over three years I’ve also built a collection of exemplar work, both for homework and mock exams.
Aside from ensuring my own students have a great experience learning these fantastic topics, I’ve been sharing my Dropbox of resources with Classics teachers in state schools, private schools, and non-specialist teachers wanting to bring Classics to their schools as a new subject.
Our students study from powerpoints that we discuss and make notes from into specially-designed note packs that double as revision materials after each unit is complete. We also use the textbook as it has been a very good indicator of how to cover the course topics, although with its size, price, and still some lapses in accuracy, we’re leaning towards trying to build enough resources so that we do not need it. Over lockdown, the challenge of remote teaching to students who are not always able to get online at specified times led to the creation of video versions of the PowerPoints and interactive PDF note-making packs. If you’d like to use them, you’ll find them all at LauraJenkinsonBrown.co.uk/portfolio/gcse-classical-civilisation. I’d love to know how you get on with them, or if you’ve got suggestions for making them better!
Contact Laura Jenkinson-Brown here
