In order to highlight the importance of the study of classics, Francis Holland School, Regent’s Park has opened its own classics centre.
Located at a recently acquired premises on Ivor Place, opposite the independent school, the classics centre is a dedicated learning space for the classics department to deliver teaching.
The facility consists of a staff room and two classrooms – one a seminar style A-level and GCSE teaching space, the other a more traditional teaching space for lower years.
The department will be running a classics festival in the facility in the next academic year, consisting of lectures from academics to around 90 students taking classical subjects at GCSE and A-level from schools all over London and the South-East.
Francis Holland has established close ties with local St Marylebone Church of England School for Girls and teaches Latin classes for free to pupils in years 8, 9, 10 and 11.
St Marylebone were forced to cut their provision due to budget constraints three years ago, which is when Francis Holland extended their Latin teaching so that pupils didn’t miss out. Lessons also continued during lockdown, with Francis Holland offering live remote teaching every week to all classes.
Headmaster of Francis Holland, Charles Fillingham, said: “Both the agonies and the ecstasies of our modern society have already been played out for us in the Classical World.
“There are easy parallels between the struggles of the Roman Empire and the consumer society of today and there is considerable wisdom to be picked up from the philosophy of Aristotle, Socrates and Plato. Believe it or not, the Classics have almost never been so popular and relevant as they are now, in the twenty-first century.”
The classics centre was officially opened in June 2021 by classicist Dr Peter Jones MBE and Nickie Aiken MP.
