The Iris Project

South West Wales Latin

We are delighted to be teaming up with Swansea University to set up an expansion of our Literacy through Latin scheme in early 2012!

WELSH PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS TO LEARN LATIN IN SCHOOL

Latin is making a comeback in the UK. Projects already running in England reveal that a basic understanding of Latin can help young people with their linguistic and literary skills in English as well as any other modern language they might study. Regarded by many in the last few decades as obsolete and useless, it is now becoming clear that Latin has an important place in the education of our children. The Department of History and Classics (Swansea University) is proud to introduce a project teaching Latin to primary school pupils to Wales for the first time, in collaboration with educational charity The Iris Project, which is already successfully running Literacy through Latin projects in various English primary schools.

Latin students of the Department of History and Classics will, as volunteers, teach Latin to year 5 and 6 pupils of Brynmill Primary School for one hour a week in the Spring and Summer terms of 2012. Latin will be approached through the Iris Latin course (http://irisproject.org.uk/index.php/resources/latin/course), which introduces Latin in a fun and engaging way, through storytelling, games, and interaction, and with specific reference to linguistic skills in English. In the next school year, the project will be opened up to other local schools in the South West Wales area.

To celebrate the start of this new project, Swansea University is organizing a launch on Thursday 26th January at 3.30pm. Short talks will be given by Prof John Morgan (Professor of Classics at Swansea University) on ‘Latin and my Life’, by Graham Kirby (The Iris Project) on ‘Latin in modern education’; Dr Evelien Bracke (Project Coordinator; Swansea University) will discuss the details of the project to teachers from other local primary schools who will be invited to the launch. Dr Evelien Bracke states: “Before the official launch starts, pupils from Brynmill Primary School will come over to the University to take part in fun Roman-related activities, such as mosaic-making and commanding a Roman army. Parents who collect their children from the University are welcome to join us for refreshments and a chat with the organizers. We also welcome all local primary school teachers and members of the general audience with an interest in Latin.” This project signifies a great step in a renewed interest in Latin in the South West Wales area; any teachers interested in getting their school involved in next year’s project are invited to contact the project coordinator, Dr Evelien Bracke, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

You can see the news item about the partnership here: South West Wales Classical Association

You can find the Swansea University Classics department here.