This course was written in response to a JACT (Joint Association of Classical Teachers) survey of over 100 schools. It offers a fast-track route to GCSE for those with limited time. It is based on experience of what pupils find difficult, concentrating on the essentials and on the understanding of principles in both accidence and syntax: minor irregularities are postponed and subordinated so that the need for rote learning is reduced. It aims to be user-friendly, but also to give pupils a firm foundation for further study. The course has been tested and refined in fifteen schools over the last three years. Part 1 covers the basics: the main declensions, a range of active tenses and a vocabulary of 275 Greek words to be learned. Pupil confidence is built up by constant consolidation of the material covered. After the preliminaries, each chapter concentrates on stories with one source or subject: Aesop, the "Odyssey" and Alexander the Great. Part 1 is self-contained, with its own reference section. The longer part 2 introduces a wide range of grammatical forms and constructions, completing the coverage of GCSE requirements and expanding vocabulary to 625 words.
Reading material (in passages of increasing length) here moves from Socrates and the Sophists to the world of myth and finally (as the target of the whole course) to extended passages of lightly adapted Herodotus. Practice passages and revision sentences for GCSE complete part 2 which has a reference section covering the whole course.
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John Taylor was for many years Head of Classics at Tonbridge School, UK, and is now Lecturer in Greek and Latin at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of Greek Beyond GCSE and co-author of Greek Stories (with Kristian Waite) and Greek Unseen Translation and Writing Greek (both with Stephen Anderson). These and his new companion course, Latin t
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