About the Cambridge
Schools Classics Project
CSCP was established in 1966 as a not-for-profit
organisation. It is part of the University of Cambridge Faculty of
Education.
The aim of the Cambridge School Classics Project
(CSCP) is to help make the classical world accessible to as many students
as possible – whatever their age or background – by
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forging strong links with
teachers and learners |
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advancing the pedagogy of
classics teaching through research and development |
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creating high quality, innovative
teaching materials based on research and development |
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exploiting new technologies
to reach out to new audiences and create cutting-edge materials |
CSCP was set up in 1966 under a joint initiative
by the University of Cambridge Faculties of Classics and Education
in response to a growing crisis in classics teaching. CSCP was generously
funded by the Schools Council and the Nuffield Foundation.
Two events had caused the crisis: first, the removal of Latin as a
matriculation requirement in Oxford and Cambridge at the start of
the 1960s; second, the emergence of comprehensive schools - and the
consequent threat to grammar schools where Latin, Greek and Ancient
History had always flourished.
Initial aims
The first CSCP Bulletin (“Towards a New Latin Reading Course”)
announced that the aim of CSCP was to:
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“develop materials and
techniques which will accelerate and improve pupils’ ability
to read classical Latin literature and widen their knowledge
of classical civilisation”; |
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“develop materials and
courses for the non-linguistic study of Classics, with particular
reference to widely varying levels of pupil ability”. |
Starting from first principles and taking full account of teaching
methodology in modern languages, CSCP developed a Latin course radically
different from all previous courses. Instead of requiring pupils to
work their way through years of meaningless English to Latin sentences
before reading any Latin, the new Cambridge Latin Course (CLC)
focused on developing pupils’ reading skills through a series
of stories set firmly in the culture of the first century AD. Thirty
years later, the Cambridge University Press has sold nearly 3 million
units of the CLC materials.
At the same time as creating the Latin course the Project team worked
on the production of non-linguistic materials in the hope of extending
the range of pupils who had contact with and knowledge of the civilisations
of Greece and Rome. These CSCP Foundation courses from the early 1970s
played a significant part in the rise of Classical Civilisation (or
Classical Studies, as it also called) as a school subject.
The current situation
CSCP is the only Nuffield project from the 1960s still running under
its original constitution. The nature of its work, however, has changed
considerably over the intervening 30 years. With the CLC now firmly
established and in its fourth edition, much of the CSCP's work now
focuses on providing support for classics teachers and developing
links with independent learners and schools with no classics teachers.
There have been new publications: graded tests for the first 3 Units
of the CLC; an independent learning manual; worksheet masters to help
teachers cater for as wide an ability span as possible. Go to Publications
& Downloads for a full list of CLC materials.
One major development has been the introduction of the CLC into many
American schools and the formation of a North American Cambridge Classics
Project which provides support and in-service training for colleagues
in Canada and the USA.
But in the last three years the most significant developments at CSCP
have been the Cambridge Online Latin Project (COLP) and the Iliad
Project, two initiatives enabling CSCP to reach a wide range of new
learners. You can download the COLP interim report and the Iliad GRIPS
report in the Publications & Downloads area.
For a detailed history of CSCP see Modernising the Classics: a
Study in Curriculum Development by Martin Forrest (University
of Exeter Press, 1996).
CSCP is currently running two research projects:
Cambridge Online Latin Project: providing
UK school students aged 11 to 16 with the chance to learn Latin via
electronic resources. The project also works with independent learners
outside the school enivironment.
Iliad Project: bringing younger pupils
into contact with the world of Homer through storytelling.
Cambridge Online Latin
Project (COLP)
COLP was set up in September 2000 in a joint venture between CSCP,
Cambridge University Press and Granada Learning, with substantial
funding from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).
The aim of COLP was to:
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produce and test a wide range
of digital resources to accompany Books I of the Cambridge Latin
Course |
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set up and support Latin in
secondary schools with no Classics teacher |
Between January and June 2001 CSCP ran a trial of the Book I digital
resources in 20 secondary schools, the majority of whom had no classics
teacher. For an interim report on the initial findings of this trial
go to the free downloads section of the Publications area.
At the end of the initial one-year project the DfES funded a revision
of the Book I digital materials.
To find out about the revised digital materials, now known as the
CLC E-Learning Resource on DVD, go to the CLC
E-Learning page.
To see what support CSCP can offer to independent learners and schools
with no classics teacher, visit the Starting
Latin area of the web site.
You can download the COLP interim report in the Publications
& Downloads area
Iliad Project
The Iliad Project was set up in 2000 to create an oral retelling of
the Trojan War, closely based on Homer’s Iliad, for use
in primary schools. Two of the UK’s leading storytellers, Hugh
Lupton and Daniel Morden, were commissioned to created their own oral
version of the story, War with Troy: The Story of Achilles.
After detailed feedback from live performances in 3 primary schools
the storytellers made substantial revisions to the story before recording
the story on CD and trailling it in a further 5 primary schools (in
Thetford and Barking & Dagenham).
For further information on War with Troy: The Story of Achilles,
visit our Myths and Storytelling area of the web site.
To order War with Troy: The Story of Achilles, go to Publications
and Downloads.
The Iliad Project built on research undertaken by CSCP in 1997/8 (the
GRIPs Project) which examined the teaching of the Greeks and Romans
in primary schools. The clear message from this research was that
parents, teachers and children all very much valued learning about
the classical world, and mythology was a particular favourite. You
can download the Iliad GRIPS report in the Publications
& Downloads area.
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