CPD: Classics Shorts with Mary Beard: Bringing Classics to the Next Generation

In 2023, the Faculty of Classics produced five brief movies, ‘Classics Shorts with Mary Beard’, all available on YouTube, that offer a classical perspective on contemporary issues. The episodes cover ‘Free Speech: What is it all about?’, ‘Why is drama important?’, ‘How do you want to be seen?’, ‘How do you change someone’s mind?’, and ‘Do we need heroes?’. Each movie comes with associated teaching guides, which are freely accessible to teachers and learners.

In order to facilitate the pedagogical use of these materials, the Faculty is organising a CPD event for teachers here in Cambridge on 20 July 2024- and we'd love for you to join us!

Who is the event for? 

All teachers and trainee teachers are welcome to attend. We will be prioritising teachers from state schools with a minimum number of state school teacher tickets, but for the remainder of the tickets teachers from any/all school types are warmly invited to attend. 

"What if I don't teach a classical subject?" That is not a problem! One of the main reasons that we created our films is their use in the non-classics classroom, so whether you teach anything from English or History, to PSHE you are most welcome. 

Provisional Timetable of the Day 

10.00: Tea/Coffee and Welcome

10.15: ‘Classical Presences’ outside the academy – some case studies

Ingo Gildenhard, Shushma Malik, Michael Squire

11.00: Using ‘How do you change someone’s mind?’ in the classroom

Shushma Malik and Tim Whitmarsh

11.50–12.10: Tea/Coffee

12.10–13.00: 'Socratic dialogue and democratic citizenship'

Frisbee Sheffield

13.00–14.00: Lunch

14.00-14.50: Using ‘Why is Drama Important?’ in the classroom

Simon Goldhill

14.50-15.15: Tea/Coffee

15.15–16.30: Workshop with Teacher Presentations on working with the videos

16.30–17.00: Break and change of venue

17.00–18.00: ‘Why the Humanities Matter’

Mary Beard

18.00: Drinks Reception + Departure

This CPD event is part of a series stretching back to 2015, which is designed to energise the teaching of Classics at all levels by fostering the exchange of knowledge and experiences between schools and universities and combining cutting-edge scholarship with pedagogical initiatives.

Practicalities

Where is the event taking place?

The event is taking place at the Faculty of Classics and Newnham College in Cambridge.

In the morning you will register at the Faculty of Classics. Please aim to arrive around 10:00 am to register.

Getting Here 

Cambridge is a small city, which is less than an hour from London and easily accessed by road or train from other parts of the country.

Cambridge County Council travel information

Please note there is NO parking available onsite. 

There is on-street Pay & Display parking on West Road and Sidgwick Avenue. There is also unregulated on-street parking nearby including on Herschel, Adams and Cranmer Roads, and we can recommend use of the Madingly Road Park and Ride. 

Cost 

Tickets to attend this CPD event will be free of charge. 

As we are keen for there to be no geographical or financial barriers for people to attend, we also hope to be able to provide travel bursaries and free college accommodation for attendees from the state-sector who need it to attend. Please indicate whether this would be needed when you sign-up and we will be in touch to confirm closer to the time. 

Places are limited and for planning purposes the deadline to apply for bursary support is 15th June and the deadline for all places is 1st July.

We also kindly ask that you only sign up for a space if you are reasonably confident that you can and will attend. 

We look forward to welcoming you to Cambridge!