Classics competition success for Perse pupil

Alexander (Year 9) proved his passion for the ancient world with success in an international classics essay competition.

He was runner-up in the intermediate (ages 14 to 18) section of the Classical Association (CA) Write, Speak, Design competition, which aimed to celebrate how and why young people study ancient history.

Entrants were challenged with writing a 2,000-word essay on the question ‘Why is Classics Important?’

Alexander was working on his Perse Aristotelian Award essay when he came across the CA competition during his research.

He said: “It caught my eye because it looked like a very interesting question because I know what learning classics means to me.

“It’s been a passion of mine since I could read. I was inspired to learn more from reading the Iliad and Odyssey, which was my particular favourite.

“You can see how they penetrated our modern culture with the hero characters of those stories, which you can find in everything from Harry Potter to Star Wars, but there’s such a wide range of things that have been affected or shaped by the classical world.

“It was really difficult to decide what to keep in and leave out, but I found it very enjoyable and it also helped develop my essay-writing skills.”

Alexander decided to focus his work on why he believed it would be beneficial for more schools in this country to teach classics as a subject.

He said: “One of the main points I put forward was how, from Years 7 to 9, I felt classics has really helped me with a lot of subject areas from maths to languages to English and I wanted to express that through my essay.

“I was really excited when I heard I was runner-up because I didn’t expect to do so well, as the age category was up to 18 and it was an international competition.”

As a result of his success, Alexander, along with the other winners and runners-up, was invited to give a presentation based on his essay at an awards ceremony in London.

He said: “It was a quite a daunting prospect, but also a fun experience. It was amazing to hear the other winners talking about their passion for the subject.

“I think speaking aloud really helps because you can convey what you want to say with emotion rather than just words written down in an essay, so public speaking is another extremely useful skill to have.”