Upper Sixth Classics Study Visit to Oxford
Six members of the Upper Sixth Form spent two days in Oxford as term began on the annual residential Classics Study Visit early in September. The pupils, who hope to study Classics, Classics and English or Ancient and Modern History at the top universities, were hosted by Brasenose College and stayed in the ancient college’s undergraduate rooms.
The busy two days began with a seminar with Dr Sillett of St Hilda’s, during which the pupils examined textual and archaeological sources in a quest to understand the impact of Cicero’s upbringing in Arpinum on his later career. The afternoon brought a session with the legendary Fr Smail on his beloved Virgil, examining the extent to which Aeneas is a reluctant hero through some close reading of the greatest Latin epic. In the evening, the Mods tutor at Brasenose, Dr Morgan, himself a doyen of Latin literature, showed the party around BNC, the pupils especially wowed by the sumptuous new library. There was just time for Mrs Hunter to lead a reading class in Ovid in her rooms overlooking Old Quad and the iconic Radcliffe Camera before a slap-up dinner and a relaxing evening in Oxford.
After breakfast beneath an excited unicorn in Hall, the pupils met Dr Mitchell of St Benet’s for a class on the late Roman republic, and thence made for St Anne’s to chat about admissions and Oxford life with Prof Leigh. A tour of the Ashmolean Museum’s remarkable Pompeii exhibition closed a splendid and demanding trip which saw the pupils’ minds tested and their ambition stirred for the arduous term ahead.
Mr Mathew Owen
Senior Enrichment Tutor
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