Classics and creative writing combine for Perse pupils’ success

The allure of ancient history sparked success for Perse pupils in major classical creative writing competitions.

Will (Year 7) won the Key Stage 3 creative writing prize in the Classical Association (CA) Mythology Competition, while Alexander (Year 10) was runner-up in the 14-16 age category of the Oxford University Classics Creative Writing Competition.

In the CA competition, Will was tasked with providing a creative response to the myth of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers whose story tells of the events leading to the creation of the city of Rome.

He said: “I thought it may be quite fun as I like Greek mythology, even though this was based around a Roman story, and I enjoy Latin.

“The brief was quite flexible, so I wrote a small extract about their childhood growing up with the wolf. It was hard to imagine what it was like for them, but I thought it was an interesting idea to look at.

“I was very surprised when I heard I’d won, but also happy to do so well.”

Meanwhile, Alexander wrote a poem for his entry to the Oxford competition, inspired by an artefact from the Ashmolean Museum – a gold signet ring from ancient Crete depicting a leaping bull.

Having been highly commended last year, he was pleased to improve his placing this year.

Alexander said: “I like classics because although those times are so far in the past, in some ways they’re not so far removed from today and there are some parallels with the modern world.

“There were three artefacts you could select from, but I chose the signet ring because it was so dynamic.

“You could really feel the emotion that might have gone into it making it and I used a technique of writing shorter lines to create the impression of the speed of the bull.”