Welcome!

I've just set up this blog to allow Australian teachers of Minimus to share ideas. It's a (slightly overdue) response to the requests from teachers after Jane Maguire of the Primary Latin Project visited last year.

Here's her report:

“LATIN FOR LITERACY” – course for primary teachers January 2017, Latin Summer School, University of Sydney, Australia.

This was the 23rd Latin Summer School to be held at the University of Sydney, an event which offers a variety of courses and lectures for school students, teachers and others. All Australian teachers must complete 25 hours of professional development per year and this five-day course was approved for teacher accreditation. The organisers wanted our course to prepare primary teachers to incorporate the teaching of elementary Latin as a vehicle for improving children’s English vocabulary and their awareness of language structures alongside basic grammatical terms. It was also to show how Minimus encourages cultural enrichment, through the exploration of Roman life, an introduction to archaeology, and the inclusion of famous Greek myths. No prior knowledge of Latin was required.

The course was attended by seven teachers from a mix of different schools. Some had never studied Latin and others had high-school Latin, which they remembered to varying degrees.

The course was delivered by Dr Emily Matters, a very experienced Australian Classics teacher, and myself. For each chapter, Emily looked at links to the Australian Primary English syllabus and provided a brief, simple introduction to the particular grammar focus. I followed up by looking at how Minimus presents it, together with all the other aspects of the course and additional resources. We watched “Minimus the Musical” and, on the last day, enjoyed a Skype session with Barbara.

I delivered one of the afternoon Guest Lectures, which attracted a very diverse group of people and seemed to generate considerable interest in Minimus.

Feedback from the course was very positive and included the suggestions that there should be an Australian section on the website and that access to more resources on the internet (through purchase of a licence) might be made available.    

                                                                                                                                                         More content, widgets and contributors to come, I hope!
Helen