Yearly Reports

JACT Greek Summer School 2023: Directors’ report

The 55^th JACT Greek Summer School took place at Bryanston School in Dorset between July 30^th and August 12^th 2023. It was attended by 308 students, 196 of whom were female and 112 male; 14 were teachers, who were developing their knowledge of Greek in order to teach it in their schools, in some cases by introducing the subject to the curriculum for the first time. 95 students were attending or had attended maintained schools in the UK, and 30 were already at university; 54 had attended the Greek summer school in a previous year. These students were taught in 41 groups by tutors employed in schools and universities across the UK or retired from such posts, and were further supported by two matrons and three directors’ assistants.

There were 81 Beginners in 12 tutor groups, 83 Intermediates (i.e. pre-GCSE) in 11 groups, and 130 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE to university level) in 15 groups. No group had more than 11 students, and the size of Beginners’ groups was again kept small thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. Beginners all used Reading Greek. Intermediate groups used either Reading Greek or the Taylor course, depending on the students’ level and previous experience. Advanced groups all read three texts: some Homer, some prose, and some drama. For Homer, the Odyssey was more popular this year with 9 groups reading a selection of books from it, while 6 groups read books from the Iliad. Of the prose authors, Plato and Xenophon were in highest demand; in all, 13 different prose texts were read across the 15 groups. Of the dramatists, Euripides was read by 8 groups (Troades by 4 of those), Aeschylus was read by 4 groups; 2 groups read Sophocles and 1 Aristophanes.

There were 3 additional tutor groups for the week-long teacher courses at Beginners, Intermediate, and GCSE levels. The Beginners and Intermediate teacher groups used Taylor’s Greek to GCSE since that is the textbook that the teachers are most likely to use in their schools. The GCSE-level group revised the key GCSE constructions, discussed the teaching of these and other language topics, and read the two most widely- chosen GCSE set text options (Homer and Herodotus). In addition to the 32 hours of formal lesson time, afternoon grammar clinics were scheduled in order to provide additional 1-on-1 support and allow students to ask further questions about specific areas of language.

The programme of evening lectures was given by a mixture of visitors and members of the home team: we were joined during the fortnight by Katherine Clarke (Greek explorers and conceptions of geography), Kathryn Stevens (Alexander in Egypt and Babylon), Sophie Bocksberger (the myth of Ajax), and Mike Edmunds (the Antikythera mechanism). Other lectures were delivered by tutors: Emma Woolerton (Homer), Jo Willmott (language change), Chris Burnand (comedy and Clouds), Alastair Harden (Greek Art), and – at late notice – Nick Denyer (why the earth doesn’t fall). There was also a busy programme of afternoon seminars from other tutors, with topics including scansion, accents, comparative philology, Sanskrit, the third declension, New Testament Greek, manuscripts and textual criticism, prose composition, Greeks in the East, Petronius, Polybius, and Persia and Herodotus.

The hours of formal tuition were supplemented not only by committed further study and the programme of lectures and seminars, but by a wide range of extra-curricular activity, made possible by the wonderful facilities at Bryanston School. There were tennis and squash tournaments, and house rounders matches after the evening lectures. The series concluded with a tightly-fought meeting between the student victors and the tutors, which ended this year in a narrow win for the students. Music flourished, with a course orchestra and a course choir: these groups performed, alongside talented soloists, in the concert on the second Thursday, which was one of the finest in summer school memory. On the middle Sunday there was a production in English of Aristophanes’ Clouds, in an updated version in modern dress, with Socrates an e-mogul/cult leader. On the final evening we sat in the Greek theatre – the weather was kind after what had been a fairly wet fortnight – to watch a visually spectacular version of Sophocles’ Ajax. The play, which had been sympathetically cut, was notable for several impressive performances, and most especially for the clarity and precision with which the Greek lines were delivered. Even those of the audience who had been beginners at the start of the course were able to identify sections of the Greek.

The online questionnaire, which was circulated at the end of the course, had a response rate of 58% (178 students). Almost all (96%) felt that they had made as much (36%) or indeed more (60%) progress with their Greek than they had expected prior to arrival. It took hard work to get there: the majority of the students (over 66%) had spent at least 3-4 hours of independent study (learning new material and completing homework) every day, with half of those (33%) spending over 4 hours a day working on their Greek outside class.

The students were very appreciative of the academic pace and the teaching – they commented very positively on the atmosphere created in class which allowed them to ask questions, and they were very vocal in their praise of the depth and clarity of the explanations they received. Almost all respondents also attended many of the evening lectures (in many cases all of them) and afternoon seminars, and/or participated in the musical, dramatic or sporting activities on offer.

As in previous years, many students commented on the impact the summer school had not only in helping them make great progress in the language, but also in becoming more confident, and added how much they cherished the opportunity to spend two weeks focusing on Greek as part of such a great and supportive community.

The Summer School continues to benefit from the generosity of a number of institutional and individual benefactors, which, among other ends, enables us to offer bursaries to all students whose circumstances would otherwise prevent them from attending the summer school. 82 bursaries totalling £55,420 (which are both record figures) were provided in 2023. Reading Greek (both volumes) was also given to all beginners at an overall cost of £4,000 (£49.49 each). We are very grateful to the ongoing support of the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Classical Association, the JACT Greek Project, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust, and Classics for All, and especially to the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), and the Jowett Copyright Trust who all generously increased their grants this year.

Chris Burnand, Director

Maria-Elpiniki Oikonomou, Director of Studies

JACT Greek Summer School 2022: report by the Director and Director of Studies

The 54^th JACT Greek Summer School took place at Bryanston School in Dorset between July 31^st and August 13^th 2022. It was attended by 291 students, 182 of whom were female and 109 male; 13 were teachers, who were developing their knowledge of Greek in order to teach it in their schools, in some cases by introducing the subject to the curriculum for the first time. 78 students were attending or had attended maintained schools in the UK, and 19 were already at University; 31 had attended the Greek summer school in a previous year. These students were taught in 38 groups by tutors employed in schools and universities across the UK or retired from such posts, and were further supported by a matron and three directors’ assistants.

There were 90 Beginners in 12 tutor groups, 46 Intermediates (i.e. pre-GCSE) in 6 groups, and 143 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE to university level) in 17 groups. The proportion of Beginner students, 32%, was the highest it has been for many years. No group had more than 10 students, and the size of Beginner groups was again kept small thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. Beginners all used Reading Greek. Intermediates used either Reading Greek or the Taylor course, depending on the students’ level and previous experience. Advanced groups all read three texts: some Homer, some prose, and some drama. For the Homer, there was a very even split between those reading books of the Iliad and those reading books of the Odyssey; Iliad 6 and Odyssey 21 proved particularly popular this year. Of the prose authors, Plato and Xenophon were in highest demand; in all, 14 different prose texts were read across the 17 groups. Of the dramatists, Euripides was read by 10 groups, in particular Hippolytus (which was the Greek Play performed at the end of the course); most other groups read Sophocles.

There were 3 additional tutor groups for the week-long teacher courses at Beginner, Intermediate, and GCSE levels.  The Beginner and Intermediate teacher groups used Taylor’s Greek to GCSE since that is the textbook that the teachers are most likely to use in their schools. The GCSE-level group revised the key GCSE constructions, discussed the teaching of these and other language topics, and read the two most widely-chosen GCSE set text options (Homer and Herodotus).

In addition to the 32 hours of formal lesson time, afternoon grammar clinics were scheduled in order to provide additional 1-on-1 support and allow students to ask further questions about specific areas of language. Students were also encouraged to take advantage of the video explainers that are freely and permanently available on the Summer School website resources page. These cover a range of language topics from beginner to more advanced levels; other videos offer analysis of passages of texts or mini-lectures on a selection of cultural and historical topics. Please do have a look, if you are reading this report!

For the first time since 2019, we were able to include external speakers among those delivering the evening lectures, and we were joined during the fortnight by Andrew Meadows (portraiture and Greek coinage), Andrew Bayliss (the Spartans), Emma Nicholson (Polybius), Barbara Goff (Femi Osofisan and Greek tragedy), Philomen Probert (Greek alphabets) and Judith Mossman (Hippolytus). Other lectures were delivered by tutors: John Taylor (on the New Testament and the Greek world, at very short notice), Il-Kweon Sir (lyric poetry) and Christopher Burden-Strevens (the art of rhetoric). There was also a busy programme of afternoon seminars from the tutors, with topics ranging from scansion, accents and prose composition, to Greek temples, Alexandria and Pergamum, and classics and creative writing. One seminar, on modern Greek, was dedicated to Elizabeth Warren, for many years the Course Secretary, who died last year.

The hours of formal tuition were supplemented not only by committed further study and the programme of lectures and seminars, but by a wide range of extra-curricular activity, made possible by the wonderful facilities at Bryanston School. There were tennis and squash tournaments, and the 2021 innovation of rounders matches after the evening lectures was continued, played in the gloaming and this year under a waxing moon. The series concluded with a tightly-fought meeting between the student victors and the tutors, which ended in a very narrow tutor victory. Music flourished, with a course orchestra and a course choir, as well as a chamber choir. These groups performed, alongside talented soloists and small ensembles, in the concert on the second Thursday, which concluded, in this Jubilee year, with a combined performance of Handel’s Zadok the Priest. On the middle Sunday there was a production in English of Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen: an imaginative and vigorous staging offered a compellingly coherent reading of the play which was also, thanks to some inspired performances, hilariously funny. On the final evening we sat in the Greek theatre – the first time since 2017 that the weather had permitted us an outdoor performance – to watch Euripides’ Hippolytus. The play shone with moving solo performances and a simple and wonderfully effective chorus; we sat and watched and listened as the light faded and the mortal drama played out under the divine gaze of Aphrodite and Artemis, seated on stage in this production throughout the play.

The online questionnaire, which was circulated at the end of the course, had a response rate of 62% (172 students). Almost all (94%) felt that they had made as much (31%) or indeed more (63%) progress with their Greek than they had expected prior to arrival. It was a typically industrious summer school cohort: the great majority of students had devoted at least 3 hours per day to independent study outside of lesson time; some 35% of respondents had spent 4 or more hours on their Greek outside of the tutor sessions. There was much appreciation for the academic pace (challenging but rewarding) and the teaching (clear and supportive). Almost all respondents had also attended many of the evening lectures and afternoon seminars, and/or participated in the musical, dramatic or sporting activities on offer. As in previous years, many students described the transformative effect the summer school had had upon their confidence levels in the subject, and the sense of satisfaction that this had fostered.

The Summer School continues to benefit from the generosity of a number of institutional and individual benefactors, which, among other ends, enables us to offer bursaries to all students whose circumstances would otherwise prevent them from attending the summer school. 62 bursaries, totalling £34185, were provided in 2022. We are grateful for a donation in memory of Neil Hopkinson, and to the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), the Jowett Copyright Trust, the Classical Association, the JACT Greek Project, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust, and Classics for All for their ongoing support of the Greek Summer School.

Catherine Steel, Director

Henry Cullen, Director of Studies

Report by the Director and Director of Studies on the JACT Greek Summer School at Bryanston School, 25 July – 7 August 2021

Miraculously, after its unavoidable but still regrettable cancellation last year, the 53rd Greek Summer School (the 35^th at Bryanston) took place, in person, and was wonderfully successful and enjoyable. Given the risks and uncertainties caused by Covid, an online version of the Summer School had been planned in detail by a group led by the Director of Studies, and much thought had been given by the Management Committee, and by the Course Secretary in particular, to special policies and procedures in the event of an in-person Summer School under various sets of assumptions. The decision to proceed in person was taken at the last possible moment, at the very end of June, and it was not taken lightly. Remarkably, Lateral Flow Tests of every member of the Summer School on three occasions through the fortnight revealed not a single positive result, and every possible in-person contact-hour of Greek was delivered as planned. Several Covid-dependent innovations proved their independent worth and will be retained.

Students:

There were 231 students, many fewer than usual, since bedrooms were all single-occupancy. This year, deliberately, our students were nearly all at school or university in the UK or Ireland. 57 of them attended or had attended maintained schools. There were 16 university students. Eight were teachers or trainee teachers, attending the summer school to enhance their ability to teach their own students.

Greek classes:

There were 56 Beginners in 9 groups, 35 Intermediates (i.e. pre-GCSE) in 5 groups, and 140 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE to university level) in 18 groups; there were 2 groups for the teacher courses. No group had more than 10 students, and the size of Beginners groups was again kept small thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. The Beginners all used Reading Greek except the teachers’ beginners group, which used Taylor’s Greek to GCSE since that is the textbook that the teachers are most likely to use in their schools. The Intermediates used either Reading Greek or the Taylor course, depending on the students’ level and previous experience. Amongst the Advanced groups, 8 groups read books of the Iliad, and 10 groups read from the Odyssey (book 21 of the latter proving particularly popular this year). Of the prose authors, Plato, Xenophon and Demosthenes were in highest demand; of the dramatists, Euripides was the most read, in particular his Bacchae and Hippolytus, while Aeschylus’ Eumenides and Sophocles’ Philoctetes were also each read by several groups. In addition to the 32 hours of formal lesson time, afternoon grammar clinics were provided in order to offer additional support and explanation of linguistic features.

Tutors and staff:

There were 35 tutors, including 14 from universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Glasgow, Kent, Manchester, Reading, and Swansea), all of whom (as a matter of policy this year) had taught at the summer school before. Two filled gaps (notCovid-related!) at very short notice. One tutorship was again generously supported by Trinity College, Cambridge. Heather Sanger in her eleventh year as our matron was as always supportive and reassuring to students and tutors alike. Erica Humbey, Patrick Johnson, and Alex Orlov-Holmes were wonderfully reliable, energetic and efficient Director’s Assistants.

Beyond the classes:

Deliberately, all lecturers this year were on the home team. Large, socially distanced, and mask-wearing audiences heard Philomen Probert on the sound of Greek, Jo Willmott on Linear B and Homer, David Langslow on patterns in Homer, Nick Denyer on ways of getting people to agree, Maria Oikonomou on Aristophanes’ Knights, Eleanor Dickey on how the Romans learned Greek, Alastair Harden on storytelling and visual effects in Greek art, John Taylor on Herodotus and Thucydides, and Anthony Bowen on Aeschylus’ Eumenides. The early-afternoon seminar programme again offered an extraordinary variety of topics, from: Linear B, accentuation, scansion, the verb ἵημι, advanced prose composition, Herodotus and Persia, Zeno’s paradox of the stadium, Stoicism, the Greek temple, Petronius, the Greek novel, and New Testament Greek, to: Modern Greek for classicist beginners, introduction to Sanskrit, Oscar Wilde’s Hellenism, and Cavafy.

This year the ever-popular Greek and general knowledge Quiz, masterminded by Emma Woolerton, took the ingenious form of an outdoor Treasure Hunt for widely-spaced teams finding and solving clues against the clock. Eleanor Dickey and Philomen Probert led a walk to the Iron Age and Roman site of Hod Hill. About 30 students took part in the lawn tennis tournament organized by John Dant, and virtually the whole summer school enjoyed some aspect of the many-sided Entertainments programme devised and run by James Thorne, Rowena Hewes, and the Director’s Assistants, a highlight being the inter-House knock-out rounders competition. A beautiful and in places deeply moving concert was held partly out of doors, including performances by two bag-pipers, two choirs, and an orchestra with an organ, coordinated, rehearsed and conducted by Rosalind Aczel and Jo Willmott. Aristophanes’ Knights was skilfully and memorably produced by James Thorne, Georgia Condell, and Christopher Burden-Strevens, with a highly talented cast and production team. The Greek play on the final evening (kept indoors by the rainclouds) was Aeschylus’ Eumenides, in a riveting and powerful production by Adrienne Gould. Clare Sharp and her team of helpers headed by Anne Bowers, Nick Denyer, and Cathy Hudspith produced literally spectacular costumes and props for both plays.

Students’ feedback:

162 students (70%) returned the online questionnaire which was circulated towards the end of the course; this response rate was, by some distance, a Summer School record. Almost all students (97%) felt that they had made as much (36%) or indeed more (61%) progress with their Greek than they had expected prior to arrival. It was a typically industrious cohort of Hellenists: the great majority of students had devoted at least 3 hours per day to independent study outside the tutor sessions, while some 30% of respondents had spent 4 or more hours on their Greek outside the lessons. The overwhelming sentiment was that the academic pace had been challenging but rewarding, the teaching clear and the atmosphere supportive. Almost all respondents had attended many of the evening lectures and afternoon seminars, and many had also found time to participate in the musical, dramatic or sporting activities. As in previous years, there were many comments praising individual tutors and the course as a whole, and many expressed an eagerness to return in future years.

Our thanks:

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), the Jowett Copyright Trust, the Classical Association, the JACT Greek Project, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust, and Classics for All. Fewer bursaries than usual were sought and made in this (in many ways exceptional) year, and the resulting operating surplus slightly exceeded last year’s operating loss.

The Summer School is as always deeply grateful to Bryanston School, whose staff always do – and this year more than ever did – everything possible to be helpful (and this year to make us safe as well as comfortable), and of whose world-class facilities we have free run. The Summer School also relies on the commitment and dedication of many individuals throughout the year. Special thanks are due to our Chair, Chris Burnand, to our Treasurer and Sponsorship Secretary, Julian Spencer, to our Outreach Officer, Emma Woolerton, for her ingenious initiatives through Covid, and to our new Assistant Director of Studies, Maria Oikonomou, who managed the teachers groups and the seminar programme, and acted as DoS in week 2. As ever, and especially this year, we owe a particularly large debt of gratitude to Cathy Bothwell, the Course Secretary. Every year, from autumn to late summer, Cathy arranges almost every aspect of the Summer School, from initial publicity, through the applications process and living arrangements at Bryanston, to the coaches that transport people away at the end. This year her work was greatly increased by the circumstances of the pandemic – especially in arrangements with Bryanston and in the preparation of the Risk Assessment (finalised in version 8!) – and its outcomes, including some innovations which we shall retain, were as clear-headed and effective as ever.

This year we mourn the loss of three of our champions, long-standing summer school colleagues and old friends all: Neil Hopkinson, many times tutor; Keith Maclennan, a former Director; and the Summer School’s co-founder David Raeburn. Each was remembered publicly before an evening lecture, and we are considering ways of honouring their memory in perpetuity. In Keith’s memory, the Summer School has received donations of £40k. In Keith’s absence, there were no Greek verses this year, but we felt and will always feel their presence among us at Bryanston.

David Langslow, Director

Henry Cullen, Director of Studies

JACT Greek Summer School – 2020

Report

As it became clear in April that the 53^rd JACT Greek Summer School would not be able to take place at Bryanston School in late July, the Management Committee decided to ask the Director of Studies, Henry Cullen, and the Outreach Officer, Emma Woolerton, to produce a range of online resources for release over the course of what would have been the Bryanston fortnight.

They together with a team of some 17 further tutors (Rosalind Aczel, Tasos Aidonis, Richard Ashdowne, Simon Costello, John Dant, Nicholas Denyer, Tom Ford, Ben Gravell, Alastair Harden, Rowena Hewes, Edmund Lewis, Maria-Elpiniki Oikonomou, Philomen Probert, Iain Ross, Cressida Ryan, John Taylor, James Thorne) worked to produce over 60 video resources. These comprised: language videos for beginners and for more advanced students; mini-lectures; explorations of short passages of Greek texts; highlights from plays previously produced at the summer school; and a reading course which covered 200 lines of Oedipus Tyrannus. A fuller list is provided in the appendix below. For the language videos, tutors devised their own practice sentences using inclusive language and examples, and all of the resources were designed with an eye to recommendations for best practice for accessibility from the British Dyslexia Association.

These resources were uploaded onto a new section of our website: https://www.greeksummerschool.org/resources/. The webpage was designed by Tom Armstrong and his fellow IT wizards at Discovery Design, for whose help and advice we are extremely grateful. Each day from Sunday 26 July to Friday 7 August the Outreach Officer uploaded several videos (at least one in each category) to the site, and then used social media to spread the word (@JACTGreek on Twitter and Facebook, and @jactgreeksummersch on Instagram).

The response to the programme was very pleasing: during the fortnight of the summer school itself, when our publicity drive was most focused, the Resources page received over 2,500 visits; as of 12 September (i.e. five weeks since the end of the ‘course’) that number had risen to over 4,000. Resources continue to be accessed steadily each day, and further publicity rounds are planned over coming months. Other areas of the website have also received thousands of hits since late July, and we hope that this will lead to a healthy number of applications for the 2021 course (which, fingers crossed, will resume normal service).

The social media response was also positive. The summer school Twitter account gained 90 new followers in July and August, and during this period tweets posting resources made approximately 74,400 impressions. The summer school profile was visited roughly 1,000 times during the period. On Instagram, the daily stories about each set of resources standardly reached between 150 and 250 people, and the summer school gained roughly 100 new followers. On Facebook, posts typically reached between 200 and 350 people; one (from the second Monday of posting) reached 749. A limited selection of videos was also posted to the summer school YouTube channel, to help drive traffic to the summer school website, with a focus on resources for beginners. Since we began to upload resources, the channel has gained 62 subscribers, as well as having 2,500 unique viewers in the period of July and August, with a combined watch time of more than 150 hours.

Crucially, all the resources are free to access (with no registration required) and will be available indefinitely; while they were produced primarily with this year’s would-be students in mind, we hope that, as well as giving a sense of the ethos and approach of the summer school and its team, the videos will also be a valuable resource for Greek teachers and students in whatever context, and wherever they are around the world. We would like to imagine, therefore, that this summer’s JACT Greek offerings will be of lasting public impact for the study of Greek.

At the time the summer school was cancelled a number of our sponsors had already approved and awarded us grants. They very generously allowed us to keep all or a substantial element of those funds, and some of the deposits already paid by prospective students were also donated. In total we received £14,246, which enabled us to provide the online resources (themselves dependent on our investment in the website in the last two years). Without those grants we would have suffered a depletion in our reserves of over £18,000. In the event the depletion was £4,206, which means that we will be able to continue promoting and offering bursaries at our recent increased level when the summer school resumes next year. We are immensely grateful for this support.

We would like to record our thanks to Bryanston School for being so understanding and helpful in the run-up to the decision to cancel this year’s course at a relatively late stage. We look forward to resuming our partnership next summer. We would also like to record our usual debt to Cathy Bothwell, the Course Secretary, who from the autumn of 2019 onwards had been preparing for the summer school in the usual way: even though the course could not take place, she had still done an enormous amount of the preparatory work. However, above all this year we would like to thank the contributing tutors, whose generosity, enthusiasm and new-found expertise with Zoom made the whole on-line project possible.

Henry Cullen, Director of Studies

Emma Woolerton, Outreach Officer

Chris Burnand, Chair of the Management Committee

September 2020

Appendix:

Video resources available at https://www.greeksummerschool.org/resources/

Beginner:  
17 videos and accompanying PDFs (covering the alphabet, pronunciation, noun cases and declensions, the article, verb tenses, adjectives, αὐτος, present participles, and two unseen passages)

Advanced:  
10 videos on syntax at the level of GCSE and beyond

15 videos forming a reading course for Oedipus Tyrannus lines 950-1185

Greek World:
6 mini-lectures (on the pronunciation of ancient languages, agreement without authorities, Herodotus, Greek inscriptions, comparative linguistics and the Greek novel)

7 explorations of short passages from texts (extracts from Homer, Sappho, Herodotus, Euripides, Plato, Demosthenes and the New Testament), with accompanying PDFs

4 additional videos explaining scansion, online resources and dictionary skills

2 videos with highlights of plays performed at JACT Greek in recent years

1 video with highlights of summer school social activities (props making, sport, concert, ancient Greek karaoke etc.)

Report by the Director and Director of Studies on the JACT Greek Summer School, held at Bryanston School 28 July – 10 August 2019

Students:

The 52nd Greek Summer School had 289 students. They included people educated in Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Dubai, France, India, Turkey, the USA and Venezuela. The majority were at school in the UK. 60 students attended or had attended maintained schools. There were 25 university students, including two from the Charles University in Prague, two from Istanbul and one each from Bologna, Delhi, Pisa and Tokyo.
Eight were teachers or trainee teachers, attending the summer school to enhance their ability to teach their own students.

Greek classes:

There were 70 Beginners in 10 groups, 50 Intermediates (i.e. pre-GCSE) in 7 groups, and 169 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE to university level) in 20 groups. No group had more than ten students, and the size of Beginners groups was once again kept small thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. The Beginners all used Reading Greek except the teacher group, which used Taylor’s Greek to GCSE since that is the textbook that the teachers are most likely to use in their schools; the Intermediates used either Reading Greek or the Taylor course, depending on the students’ level and previous experience. Favourite authors and texts read by Advanced groups included: of the many books of Homer that were read, Iliad 3 and Odyssey 9, 13 and 18; amongst prose authors, Plato, Lucian and Demosthenes; of the dramatists, Euripides was the most popular, especially his Bacchae, Hippolytus and Helen; Sophocles, Aeschylus and Aristophanes all featured too.

Tutors:

There were 38 tutors, including 14 from universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Cologne, Durham, Glasgow, Manchester, Reading, Swansea, and Warwick), and three teaching at the summer school for the first time. One tutorship was again generously supported by Trinity College, Cambridge. Heather Sanger in her tenth year as our matron was as always supportive and reassuring to students and tutors alike. Will Cross, Patrick Johnson and Matilda Schwefel were superbly efficient and energetic Director’s Assistants.

Beyond the classes:

Visiting lecturers were William Allen on the Homeric hero, Jenny Bryan on why philosophers should read Homer, David Raeburn on the tragic poet’s task, Laura Swift on the newest Sappho and Katherine Clarke on the lively landscape of Herodotus. The home team was represented by Henry Cullen on Greek inscriptions, Alastair Harden on Dionysus, John Taylor on Aristophanes’ Frogs and Julian Spencer on Euripides’ Bacchae. The early-afternoon seminar programme continues to expand in attendance and in the range of topics on offer: Linear B, scansion, accentuation, prose composition, verse composition, the verb ἵημι, papyrology, the ancient schoolroom, similes, Herodotus and Persia, Hero and Leander, the Greek novel, New Testament Greek and Modern Greek. Katharine Radice visited to talk about teaching Greek and David Raeburn to give his presentation on the sound of Greek, and there was an English reading of Bacchae.

There was as usual lively competition among 34 teams in the Greek and general knowledge quiz, masterminded and compered by Tom Ford and Emma Woolerton. Eleanor Dickey and Philomen Probert led a walk to the Iron Age and Roman site of Hod Hill. A fine and varied concert was arranged, rehearsed and conducted by Rosalind Aczel and Keith Maclennan. Aristophanes’ Frogs was stylishly produced by Rowena Hewes and Adrienne Gould, with a highly talented cast. The Greek play on the final evening (driven indoors by the weather) was Euripides’ Bacchae, produced in a stunningly powerful way by Stuart Macaulay and Alastair Harden. Clare Sharp and her large team of helpers headed by Anne Bowers, Cathy Hudspith and James Thorne produced superb costumes and ingenious props for both plays.

Students’ feedback:

204 students (71%) returned questionnaires; this response rate was a record by a considerable margin, and the switch from paper to an online form can take the credit. Almost all students felt that they had made as much or indeed more progress with their Greek than they had expected. It was a typically industrious cohort: the vast majority of students devoted at least three hours per day to independent study, with many spending four or five hours on their Greek outside of the tutor sessions. The overwhelming majority said that they had found the academic pace challenging but rewarding, the teaching clear and the atmosphere supportive. Almost all respondents had attended many of the lectures and seminars on offer, and many had also found time to participate in the musical, dramatic or sporting activities. As in previous years, there were many comments praising individual tutors and the course as a whole.

Our thanks:

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), the Jowett Copyright Trust, the Classical Association and JACT Greek Project, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust, JACT Summer Schools Trust and Classics for All.

The Summer School is as always grateful to Bryanston School, whose staff do everything they can to be helpful, and of whose superb facilities we have free run. The Summer School also relies on the commitment and dedication of many individuals throughout the year. We owe a particularly large debt to Cathy Bothwell, the Course Secretary, who from autumn onwards arranges almost every aspect of the Summer School, from initial publicity through the applications process and living arrangements at Bryanston to the coaches that transport people away at the end.

John Taylor, Director
Henry Cullen, Director of Studies

Students:

The 50^th Greek Summer School had 337 students, which included people educated in Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, Turkey and the USA, as well as in the UK; 92 had attended maintained schools in the UK.

Greek Classes:

There were 73 Beginners in 10 groups, 57 Intermediates (i.e. pre-GCSE) in 8 groups, and 207 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE up to university level) in 27 groups. No group had more than ten students; the Beginners groups were kept particularly small thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. The Beginners used the JACT Reading Greek textbooks, as did most of the Intermediates, though some of the latter used Taylor’s Greek to GCSE if that was what they had used previously. Extra grammar clinics were laid on for students who needed extra support or consolidation; these proved a useful forum both for exploring minutiae and for revising fundamentals. Favourite authors and texts read by Advanced groups included: among many different books of Homer, Iliad 3, 9 and 22, and Odyssey 5, 6 and 7; of prose authors, Plato, Lysias, and Demosthenes; for the drama text six groups read Sophocles’ Electra (to prepare them for the production of that play in Greek at the end of the course), with Euripides’ Electra proving almost as popular – this was the summer of the revenge tragedy.

Tutors:

There were 45 tutors, including seventeen from universities (Cambridge, Cologne, Durham, Glasgow, Kings College London, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Reading and Roehampton) and ten teaching at the Summer School for the first time. One tutorship was again generously supported by Trinity College, Cambridge. Heather Sanger was our matron and the Director’s Assistants were Lucy Emanuel, Will Johnson and Abbas Khan.

Beyond the Classes:

Visiting lecturers were Adrian Kelly on the Homeric hero, Karen Ni-Mheallaigh on the moon in Greek literature and culture, Peter Thonemann on religion and politics in classical Athens and Paul Millett on literacy in Greece. There were also lectures by John Penney on Lycia, Kathryn Stevens on Babylonia, Angus Bowie on Aristophanes’ Acharnians, Costas Panayotakis on Greek literature in Petronius’ Satyricon and John Taylor on Sophocles’ Electra. There was in addition a daily programme of afternoon seminars covering a range of linguistic, literary, historical and philosophical topics.

Academic work was supplemented by a stimulating choice of extra-curricular activities. Eleanor Dickey and Philomen Probert dodged heavy rain to lead a walk to the Iron Age and Roman site at Hod Hill, and there was a coach excursion to Salisbury. Emma Woolerton devised and compèred a challenging quiz on the middle Saturday, and the concert featured performances by the course orchestra (conducted by Keith Maclennan) and choir (conducted by Rosalind Aczel) as well as a diverse selection of chamber and solo pieces. On the middle Sunday there was a sparkling and very funny performance, in English, of Aristophanes’ Acharnians, directed by a team led by James Thorne. Rain interfered with the final performance, in Greek, of Sophocles’ Electra and we could not use the Greek theatre; under the director Tom Ford’s expert guidance cast and crew responded magnificently in the Coade Hall with a driven and gripping interpretation. The costumes and props for both performances were provided by a large team of students and tutors under the guidance of Clare Sharp.

We celebrated the 50^th iteration of the Summer School on the middle Saturday with a number of guests, including former Summer School Directors and Directors of Studies; after lunch, at which we enjoyed Keith Maclennan’s ode, written for the occasion, David Raeburn lectured on The Sound of Greek. Fundraising and outreach activities to mark the 50^th anniversary are in development for 2018.

Student Feedback:

167 students (49%) returned questionnaires, with almost all their feedback extremely positive. The great majority felt that they had made more progress with their Greek than they had expected, and almost all the rest that they had achieved at least as much as they had hoped. It was, as usual, an impressively industrious Summer School: in addition to the contact time in lessons, students on average devoted four or five hours per day to independent study (this was spent doing language exercises, preparing texts, learning accidence, etc.); almost every respondent had spent at least three hours per day working independently. Time and again the students reported that they found the pace of the course challenging but rewarding, the teaching clear, and the environment supportive. Almost everyone had, in addition to their language work, attended many of the lectures and seminars on offer; plenty had also found the time to participate in musical, dramatic or sporting activities. The Summer School continues to attract students who like to be busy and are keen to make the most of the opportunities on offer. As in previous years, there was great praise both for individual tutors and for the course as a whole, and there were comments thanking all of our visiting and ‘home team’ lecturers.

Our Thanks:

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), the Jowett Copyright Trust, the Classical Association for a substantial contribution to the combined Summer Schools of JSST and for continuing the support separately offered to the Greek Summer School by the JACT Greek Project, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust, private benefactors and the Classics Academy for granting us a share in the distribution of their funds. Their generosity ensures that the Summer School continues to be able to offer bursaries to all students who need financial assistance to attend the course.

The Summer School is, as always, very grateful to Bryanston School, whose facilities make possible a residential summer school and all the opportunities which arise from that. Its activities take place under the guidance of its Management Committee and depend very heavily on the support and advice of the committee’s members, particularly its Secretary, Helen van Noorden, the Sponsorship Secretary, Keith Maclennan, the Treasurer, Julian Spencer, and above all its Chair: we are very grateful to Elizabeth Warren, who demitted in August after three years in the role, for her tireless work on behalf of the Summer School and JSST, and to our incoming Chair, Chris Burnand. The Summer School simply could not take place without the work of the Course Secretary, Cathy Bothwell, who manages arrangements with Bryanston School, works throughout the year to publicise the Summer School, handles applications, organises travel and accommodation, and finally ensures that once we gather in Dorset the course runs like clockwork. We are all deeply in her debt.

Catherine Steel, Director
Henry Cullen, Director of Studies

Students:

The 49th Greek Summer School had 351 students, a modest increase on the last two years.
They included people educated in the USA, Ireland, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Dubai, Singapore, and Venezuela. The majority were at school in the UK. 67 students attended or had attended maintained schools, but we aim in future years to increase the proportion. There were 19 university students, including two from the Charles University in Prague and one from the Pontifical Xaverian University in Bogota.

Greek classes:

There were 75 Beginners in 12 groups, 63 Intermediates (i.e. pre-GCSE) in 8 groups, and 213 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE to university level) in 25 groups. No group had more than ten students; the Beginners groups were kept particularly small thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. The Beginners used the JACT Reading Greek textbooks, as did most of the Intermediates, though some of the latter used Taylor’s Greek to GCSE if that was what they had used previously. Favourite authors and texts read by Advanced groups included: among many different books of Homer, Iliad 3, 18 and 24, and Odyssey 6, 7 and 18; of prose authors, Plato, Demosthenes and Lysias; of the dramatists, Euripides was the most popular, in particular his Bacchae and above all his Women of Troy, ahead of the production of that play at the end of the fortnight.

Tutors:

There were 45 tutors, including 16 from universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Cologne, Durham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, Reading, Swansea, and Warwick), and two teaching at the summer school for the first time. One tutorship was again generously supported by Trinity College, Cambridge. Two potential teachers were with us for the second week under the scheme efficiently administered by Simon Costello. Heather Sanger in her seventh year as our matron was again supportive and reassuring to students and tutors alike. Lucy Emmanuel, William Johnson and Thomas Kelly were superbly efficient and energetic Director’s Assistants.

Beyond the classes:

Visiting lecturers were Patrick Finglass on Stesichorus and Homer, Kathryn Tempest on Roman attitudes to the Greeks, Robin Osborne on making sense of Herodotus, Carrie Vout on seeing God in Greece and Rome, Judith Mossman on Plutarch and Shakespeare, and Emma Stafford on myth in Athenian vase-painting. The home team was represented by John Taylor on Aristophanes’ Wasps and Anthony Bowen on Euripides’ Women of Troy. The early-afternoon seminar programme continues to expand in attendance and in the range of topics on offer: Linear B, scansion, accentuation, the third declension, prose composition, verse composition, reading papyri, Greek mathematics, how to do ancient history, Zeno’s stadium paradox, the Romans and the Greek East, New Testament Greek, the Renaissance recovery of Greek, and Oscar Wilde’s Hellenism. There was as usual lively competition between some forty teams in the Greek and general knowledge quiz, masterminded and compered by Judith Affleck and Tom Ford. Eleanor Dickey and Philomen Probert led a walk to the Iron Age site of Hod Hill, Andrew Downey organized a lawn tennis tournament, and an excursion visited Salisbury. A fine and varied concert was arranged, rehearsed and conducted by Clive Letchford. Aristophanes’ Wasps was hilariously produced by Holly Eckhardt with a highly talented cast and production team. The Greek play in the open-air theatre on the final evening was Euripides’ Women of Troy, produced in a wonderfully atmospheric way by Emily Clifford with Anthony Bowen and Tom Ford. Clare Sharp and her large team of helpers headed by Anne Bowers and Nick Denyer produced superb costumes and ingenious props for both plays.

Students’ feedback:

165 students (45%) returned questionnaires, with almost all their feedback extremely positive. The great majority felt that they had made more progress with their Greek than they had expected, and almost all the rest that they had achieved at least as much as they had hoped. It was a typically industrious cohort: over 90% of respondents said they had devoted at least three hours per day to independent study (e.g. doing language exercises, preparing texts, learning accidence, etc.); about two thirds had done four or more hours’ private study per day. Students routinely said that they found the pace challenging but rewarding, the teaching clear, and the environment supportive. Almost everyone had, in addition to their language work, attended lots of the lectures and seminars; many had also found the time to participate in musical, dramatic or sporting activities. The Summer School continues to attract students who like to be busy and are keen to make the most of the opportunities on offer. As in previous years, there was great praise for both individual tutors and the course as a whole.

Our thanks:

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), the Jowett Copyright Trust, the Classical Association, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust, and several private benefactors.

The Summer School is as always grateful to Bryanston School, whose staff do everything they can to be helpful, and of whose superb facilities we have free run. The Summer School also relies on the commitment and dedication of many individuals throughout the year. Julian Spencer has taken over as Treasurer, in succession to Andrew Downey who served in this role for 23 years. We owe a particularly large debt to Cathy Bothwell, the Course Secretary, who from autumn onwards arranges almost every aspect of the Summer School, from initial publicity through the applications process (now all online) and living arrangements at Bryanston to the coaches that transport people away at the end. Plans are in hand for celebration of the fiftieth Summer School in 2017.

John Taylor, Director
Henry Cullen, Director of Studies

The Students:

328 students attended this 48th JACT Greek Summer School. Three of these were in employment and a further 26 were undergraduate or postgraduate university students (including one from the Charles University in Prague, one from the Complutense University in Madrid, one from the Monteavila University in Caracas). The remaining 299 were at school or had just left. They included young people educated in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and the USA, and 77 from maintained schools in the UK.

The Tutors:

There were 43 tutors, including 18 from universities (Oxford, Cambridge, Cologne, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan, Reading, Tel Aviv, and Warwick), four teaching at the Summer School for the first time, one of these four having been a Prospective Teacher at the Summer School in 2014. One tutorship was again generously supported by Trinity College, Cambridge. Two Potential Teachers were with us for the second week, shadowing and sharing teaching at all levels.

Greek Classes:

There were 88 Beginners in 12 groups, 54 Intermediates (i.e., pre-GCSE) in 8 groups, and 186 Advanced students (from immediately post-GCSE to university level) in 23 groups. No group had more than ten students, but the Beginners groups were kept to a maximum size of eight thanks to a special grant from the Cambridge Classics Faculty. The Beginners used Reading Greek, as did most of the Intermediates, though some of the latter used the Taylor course if that was what they had used previously. Favourite authors and texts read by Advanced groups included: of the many books of Homer that were read, Iliad 3, Iliad 6 andOdyssey 6; of prose authors, Plato, Lysias and Herodotus; of the dramatists, Euripides was the most popular, especially his Alcestisand Bacchae, but six groups this year read Aeschylus’ Persians, inspired by the production of that play at the end of the fortnight.

Beyond the classes:

Visiting lecturers were Tom Harrison on the reception of Herodotus, Peter Thonemann on echoes of Solon’s approach to debt in contemporary Greece, Alastair Harden on depictions of Persians in classical Greek art, and David Raeburn demonstrating the Sound of Greek in a sell-out afternoon seminar. The home team was represented by David Langslow on Patterns in Homer, Nick Denyer on the decoding of Protagoras’ myth, Angus Bowie on Aristophanes’ Birds, Philomen Probert on the history of the debate whether to pronounce Greek by accent or by quantity, and Anthony Bowen on Aeschylus’ Persians. The afternoon seminar programme again broke all previous records for the number and variety of topics on offer: scansion, Epicureanism, the myth of Hero and Leander, Greek history writing, accents, ecphrasis, inscriptions, Linear B, ancient medicine, prose composition, ancient reading and writing (practical), literary criticism, Greek literature and the Bible, Heraclitus on why peace would be a bad thing, and a read-through of the Persians in English.

Extra-curricular activities included as usual lively and entertaining competition between some forty teams in the Greek and general knowledge quiz, a walk the Iron Age site of Hod Hill, a lawn tennis tournament and an excursion to Salisbury. A moving and beautiful concert was held in the new auditorium, including performances by two choirs, a string band and an orchestra. Aristophanes’ Birds was a Summer-School first, in a hilarious production with a vastly talented cast and crew. The Greek play in the open-air theatre on the final evening was a grippingly watchable and beautifully spoken performance of Aeschylus’ Persians. Tutors and students worked together to produce literally spectacular costumes and props for both plays (including notably Persian trousers and head-dresses and about 20 bird-masks).

Students’ Feedback:

132 students (40%) returned questionnaires, with almost all their feedback extremely positive. 68% felt that they had made moreprogress with their Greek than they had expected, and almost all the rest that they had achieved at least as much as they had hoped. It was a typically industrious cohort: 91% of respondents said they had devoted at least three hours per day to independent study, 68% over four hours, and 33% five hours or more. The vast majority said that they had found the pace challenging but rewarding, the teaching clear and the environment supportive. Almost all respondents had attended many of the lectures and seminars on offer, and many had also found time to participate in the musical, dramatic or sporting activities. As in previous years, there were many unsolicited comments praising individual tutors and the course as a whole. We are once again very heartened by the students’ appreciation of the work of the Summer School.

Our Thanks:

The Summer School is, as always, grateful to Bryanston School, whose staff in all departments do everything they can to be helpful, and of whose world-class facilities we have virtually free run.

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Cambridge Classics Faculty, the Oxford Faculty Board of Classics, the Craven Committee (Oxford), the Jowett Copyright Trust, the Classical Association, Trinity College Cambridge, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, the JACT Greek Project, the Gilbert Murray/Cromer Trust and several private benefactors.