CARPE DIEM… EUGE! WHOLE YEAR GROUP OF PUTNEY SCHOOLCHILDREN PASS OCR EXAMINATION IN LATIN (From Your Local Guardian)

CARPE DIEM… EUGE! WHOLE YEAR GROUP OF PUTNEY SCHOOLCHILDREN PASS OCR EXAMINATION IN LATIN

6:36pm Tuesday 28th August 2012 in Wandsworth

The eleven year old leavers of Hurlingham School in Putney are sure to start their secondary education with a real spring in their step, for they discovered on Thursday that they have all gained a qualification in Latin from the OCR examinations board five years earlier than its intended audience of 16+ students.

This was the second consecutive year in which Hurlingham has entered all its Year Six pupils for the assessment, which includes traditional examination papers in vocabulary and translation alongside a piece of formal controlled assessment coursework requiring a personal response to the writings of Pliny the Younger in which the destruction of Pompeii in 79 AD is described.

Jonathan Brough, Headmaster of Hurlingham, said he was delighted that the school had achieved a 100% pass rate once again, of which 88% was at the highest possible level that could be achieved on the test. He added that Hurlingham had adopted the assessment not only to acknowledge and celebrate the pupils’ proficiency in their classical studies but also to demonstrate to the children how public examinations are not things to be feared, but rather opportunities to embrace which result in success for each and every pupil.

The Latin examination course is just one ingredient in a rich educational diet which eleven year old children enjoy in their final term at the school, once they have all gained places in senior schools of their choice. The Latin exam work is an example of continued academic achievement after the entrance exams are completed, but pupils also all perform in a major musical production, they spend a week living in France, they set up their own companies as part of a Business Studies simulation and their Citizenship programme includes a tour of the Houses of Parliament. Creative Writing also continues apace; indeed, one pupil’s short story was selected in July for a professional reading on the West End stage.

All of the children are looking forward to 28th November, when they will return to Hurlingham for a reunion, including the presentation of their OCR Latin certificates by children’s author Gillian Cross. Meanwhile, Mr Brough confirmed that the new Year Six class will start to work towards the qualification, alongside participating in a myriad of other educational opportunities such as a trip to the Paralympic Games, spending a day in the newsroom of a national newspaper learning how it is put together and singing in a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Based on information supplied by Jonathan Brough.