It’s been an amazing month for the Classics department at High Storrs School. We’re here to give you an update and to post a few answers to questions that keep cropping up about our crowdfunding campaign.

We launched our online crowdfunding initiative on Thursday 28th September and have had an amazing response. Staff, pupils, parents and members of the public have all been wonderfully supportive and our fund currently stands at nearly £7,000 including donations made directly to school. You can visit our page at:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/save-classics 

Several people have been asking about the large sum we want to raise (£100,000) and what this will be used for exactly. This sum is aimed at subsiding Latin GCSE and Classical Civilisation classes for the next ten to twenty years. It will enable these classes to run even if numbers fall below the required pupil cohort needed to put on the class – typically between 25-30 pupils. Taking Latin GCSE as the example, were we to have 14 students wanting to do the GCSE and the average size of GCSE groups in other subjects in the school were 28, the school would provide half the staffing costs and we would then provide the other half from our fund thus enabling the group to run. Of course, it won’t always work out as conveniently as that but that’s the principle behind the idea. Broadly speaking, we could say that every £5,000 or so that we manage to raise will enable a smaller group to run.

We also had the author Caroline Lawrence visit the school on Tuesday 24th October. Caroline has written several adventure books set in Ancient Rome for children and young adults (http://www.romanmysteries.com/). She gave a talk to Year 8s and had a book signing in the library. It was a lively and engaging event, one that enthused pupils about classical civilisations. We are so grateful Caroline is enthusiastic about the teaching of Classical subjects in state schools and is supporting our campaign.

The next fundraising event will be taking place on Saturday 9th December at the High Storrs Christmas Fayre. We’re having a ‘Book and Bake’ sale. We’ll be selling lovely homemade buns and cakes and you can grab yourself a bargain on our book stall. We’ll have some Classics books for sale but will have a wide range of every other subject there too including fiction, non-fiction and biographies. YOU CAN HELP!! If you would like to donate some unwanted books (excellent condition only please) to our stall then please drop them off at visitor reception at the school marked ‘FAO Classics’. This would be very much appreciated. Details about baking nearer the time. Miss Johnson and Ms Gill will be at the stall so any information you would like about the fundraising campaign or, indeed Classics in general then please come along and visit us. We hope to see you there!