Since 2017, the Advocating Classics Education project has been based at King’s College London, whence it has been busy promoting the study of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in schools and colleges. We are delighted to announce that we have now moved our base to Durham University and have launched Phase 4 of the project which focuses on schools and colleges across the North East of England. Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Steven Hunt identified in their 2021 CUCD article how ‘Classics poverty’ – the uneven distribution of access to classical subjects – has affected the North East in particular. So the move to Durham provides ACE with an exciting opportunity to address this severe lack of provision.
ACE’s own Professor Edith Hall has recently moved to Durham, and her co-director Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson has taken up a post as Associate Professor. Dr Peter Swallow, who edits the ACE website, will also be joining the team at Durham as a postdoctoral researcher in 2023.
We are keen to form new collaborations and partnerships with the many brilliant organisations working to promote Classics in the North East, including with Classics for All North, Durham’s Public Policy Hub, the Historical Association and Association for Language Learning North-East Branches, and of course the recently launched Hadrian’s Wall Branch of the Classical Association, of which Professor Edith Hall is president.
Durham has introduced a new PGCE course in Latin with Classics, and we are delighted to be working with mentors in schools to support and enrich the training experience. Arlene is the subject-specialist on the PGCE course in the Durham University School of Education. Of course, the big benefit of Classical Civilisation is that, with appropriate training, it can be taught by any teacher, not just subject specialists. It is, of course, brilliant to see more qualified Classics teachers entering the profession at a time when there is serious demand for them, and all forged in the North East. This can only help Classics to grow in local schools.
In September 2022, Durham threw a mini-bash to celebrate the start of this new partnership with ACE, alongside other exciting initiatives – complete with a cake baked by Edith!
