STALOS Graduation 2025
On Thursday 4th December staff and students of University of St Andrews School of Classics welcomed Latinists from Bertha Park High School to celebrate their STALOS graduation.
The group of young learners from Perth were welcomed first by Professor Roger Rees, our Head of School, who congratulated the pupils on choosing to study Latin at lunchtime over the past few months. He also thanked Anna Coopey, the postgraduate tutor who devised and delivered the 10 sessions of ab initio (‘from scratch’) Latin, and Dr Henry Stead for directing the STALOS programme. This year Anna, a second-year SGSAH funded PhD candidate at the University, collaborated with Bertha Park teacher Melissa Turner to devise a method of teaching the school pupils remotely, via online sessions mixed with digital learning materials. Some learners, who were unable to attend the class hour, even managed to engage effectively asynchronously with the new set up. While we are still committed to in-person learning where logistically viable (i.e. in local state schools in or around the Kingdom of Fife), this change represents a giant leap forward for STALOS, because it proves that we can now open the programme to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Dr Juan Coderch addressed the group in fluent Latin talking about his own journey in education. Then Lily and Kian, two honours-level undergraduate students from Edinburgh and Dunfermline respectively, spoke about their experience of coming to the study of the ancient world at university. Lily studies Film and Classical Studies and Kian Ancient History, although both are currently enrolled on Dr Stead’s module A People’s History of Scottish Classics. They spoke about what it is like to move to university, and to study a Humanities subject. The school pupils were interested in asking them about how much reading they had to do, and what they wanted to do after university.
We moved from the Students’ Union to the School of Classics where we met Dr Alison Hadfield, who led a workshop where the pupils handled replicas of ancient objects and used digital images to figure out what on earth they were. All the objects came from the School’s Bridges Collection. After the session, we moved across the road to the historic site of St Salvator’s Quad for our Graduation Ceremony. Dr Stead played a recording of the Latin song Gaudeamus igitur and then read it through with the latinists’ help identifying the verbs and nouns (and able to read a lot more of it than they first thought they could). The group was then addressed by their tutor, Anna who asked the pupils to vote on the worst of the Greek gods, presenting their crimes and finally jailing one. Zeus was found guilty by popular consensus, although Aphrodite, Hades and Apollo also drew some serious heat.
The students from Bertha Park were awarded their STALOS certificates and some university goodies. In their test they all scored full marks, which bodes well for the six of them who are going to continue their Latin studies to Nat 4 level later this year.
After the ceremony, we had lunch together in Swallowgate, where we were joined by the inspirational Rebecca Munro, who spoke to the pupils about routes into the University and support for those from disadvantaged areas. On their way back to the minibus, the group visited St Salvator’s Chapel, founded in 1450, and leapt over the PH monogram set into the cobblestones below its belltower so as to avoid any academic curses. PH are the initials of the 24-year-old Patrick Hamilton (died 1528) who was burnt at the stake for his Protestant beliefs. If you step on the spot you will fail your exams unless you absolve your academic sins at the May Dip. The group looked up to see high up on the belltower the stone in which some say Patrick’s face can just be made out.
We are extremely grateful to the School of Classics, University of St Andrews, for their generous funding of the STALOS programme. We are always in need of financial support, so if you are interested in helping us deliver this project of extending Latin provision in the Scottish state sector, please do contact Henry Stead ([email protected]). If you are a teacher in a Scottish state school who would like to bring Latin to their school and work with us on a STALOS collaboration, we’d love to hear from you!