In this paper, I explore the use of long-term, hands-on learning activities for Classics courses. I will show that a carefully designed project can complement classroom lectures on Greek and Roman culture and contribute towards the development of students’ critical thinking and group work skills. As an example, I describe a successful hands-on learning project that I designed for my Ancient Greek Cities course at Monmouth College (USA). The students were tasked with researching and building an historically faithful, ancient Greek mudbrick building for the college's annual Classics Day event. With the success of this project in my class, I will show that Classics instructors can pursue similar long-term, hands-on learning activities for engaging students in ancient Greek and Roman culture and teaching essential skills.

I guess the first issue that comes to mind when considering classical works in translation is ‘what is the actual purpose of the text?’ In the Classical Civilisation classroom, we are introducing students to ancient societies and ancient cultures that they will discuss in English. Apart from the fact that few, if any, of our own (state school) students will have any experience in Latin or ancient Greek, I have to question the validity of the argument some use that Classics must be studied in its original language in order fully to understand and appreciate the ancient authors.

Some years back, the English department for which I was Head of Key Stage 3 found that, due to a timetabling issue, Year 7s had an extra hour of English per fortnight. It seemed like a waste of an opportunity to pad this extra hour out with ‘more of the same’, so I made a decision to utilise that hour to teach something different - grammar.

Look at the secondary school timetable and you will see that almost all the subjects are ancient Greek words; so the Greeks studied these ideas first and are worth studying for their ideas in their own language (just like the Romans in Latin!). Greek: Biology, Physics, Zoology, Philosophy, Mathematics, Economics, Politics, Music, Drama, Geography, History, Technology, Theatre Studies. Latin: Greek, Latin, Art, Science, Information (Latin) Technology (Greek), Computer Science, Media Studies.

It is well established that Latin has long suffered from not being included in the National Curriculum. The effects of the National Curriculum have been far-reaching and nearly terminal for the teaching of Latin in state schools, an issue which has been discussed effectively already (Hunt, 2016; Tristram, 2003; Gay, 2003). In the face of the more serious issue of Latin being dropped by many schools due to its status outside the National Curriculum, one issue which is often overlooked is the lack of support and guidance concerning curriculum and assessment models for those departments still offering Latin. Many departments are guided by the course books they follow or the outcomes desired by the GCSE they take. These issues can lead to problems of their own, such as an over-reliance on the course book or too keen an eye on the end goal of the GCSE. Neither of these things is sustainable or desirable when it comes to a dynamic curriculum or meaningful assessment, and the satisfactory resolution of such problems often relies on serious input from outstanding practitioners within departments who can navigate these complicated issues – something not open to all. There has been help offered by the Association for Latin Teaching (ARLT) who have produced grade descriptors to help teachers who (paradoxically) need to conform to the same standards as other subjects when reporting ‘National Curriculum’ assessment. But this cannot be considered as anything more than a stopgap and only assists with one half of the issue. Alternatively, others may be attracted by the curriculum model offered by the American Classical League's Standards for Classical Language Learning (2016, draft) which offers a comprehensive and fully communicative approach to the teaching of Latin with their 5 Goals and which has been available for 20 years now. This, of course, cannot help with the other half of the problem: the UK assessment model.

It is true that Greek and Latin writers use the indicative to assert a fact. This is not to say that what Greek and Latin writers assert by means of the indicative is a fact. This distinction is central to this article. There is widespread (in many grammar and course books) misunderstanding (or at least misleading explanation) of the information conveyed by the forms of certain Greek and Latin constructions. The misunderstanding seems to be the result of a failure to distinguish between a fact and the writer's attitude to a fact; between what is the case and what the writer says or implies is the case; between what can and cannot be deduced about what the writer knows and does not know about the facts in question from the way in which the writer expresses himself. The misunderstanding affects more constructions in Latin than in Greek. I shall begin with the Greek constructions.

The ‘Advocating Classics Education’ (ACE) project is an initiative led by Professor Edith Hall and Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson, based at King's College London. The project seeks to extend the availability of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History (CC/AH) qualifications to learners in non-fee-paying schools across the United Kingdom. To do so, Professor Hall has been awarded a Leadership Fellowship of £250,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The project's full title is ‘Studying Classical Civilisation in Britain: recording the past and fostering the future’ and it runs from 1st May 2017 to 31st August 2018.

‘Classics in Hong Kong’ is not a phrase one comes across on a regular basis, so when I was asked to write this article on my experiences of teaching Classics in Hong Kong specifically and my perspective on Classics in Asia generally, I was delighted at the opportunity. I joined The Independent Schools Foundation Academy (The ISF Academy, Hong Kong) just over two years ago, having studied, trained and taught Classics in London previously. When the prospect arose of teaching the subject I love on the other side of the globe, it was an offer I could not refuse, out of curiosity if nothing else! Although my teaching experiences on my Asian adventure thus far have been quite different and often unfamiliar, I still passionately believe that Classics is equally important everywhere: appreciating the achievements of the ancients; questioning human nature and the world we live in; and learning from heroes and villains, mortals and immortals. After all, the Ancient Greeks and Romans played an important role both in the West and the East, with interaction between the civilisations across the ages; Alexander the Great's empire is of course one such example of the mutual intellectual, political and economic exchange between the western and eastern worlds.

The Bristol Classics Hub was set up in September 2016 to promote and support the teaching of classical subjects in state schools in the South West of England. Funded by Classics for All and the Institute of Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition and delivered in partnership with the University of Bristol, the hub aims to widen access to Classics by offering a powerful and stable focus for regional development.