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10 CLASSICS / ART
What Have the Romans Done for Us?
Last academic year the Classics
Department organised a project
for the L4ths asking “How did
the Romans benefit modern day
society?” This exercise helped
both with persuasive writing in
English, and with public speaking.
Each group in a class showed
their presentation to convince the
rest of the class and the best one
from each class was chosen to
compete against all the other
L4th classics classes.
Emily Harris, U4E, Keira Murphy, U4W and
Charlotte Peters, U4E wrote, “With many
interesting talks, the lunch time debate
was packed with facts and provided many
insights into different aspects of Roman life.
With the subject of the talks ranging from
architecture to entertainment, every group
offered a different perspective on what was
the most significant influential legacy. Holly
and Isher, for example, spoke about roads
and city planning, while Amina, Pari, Daya,
Kemi and Bhavleen told us about sports
and leisure. After their talk, each group had
to answer a question from Mrs Coyne and
Miss Stewart, who were the adjudicators;
these were wonderfully answered. We were
pleased to be chosen as the winners (our
topic was architecture) and are now much
more aware of the wonderful way of life
which the Romans have left us.”
Sahana Sekhon’s (U4S) group came up
with the intriguing idea of looking at
propaganda. She explained, “The Romans
used propaganda in different types of forms,
for example, in art, literature and buildings.
One example of Roman propaganda was
when local people would graffiti on walls
of buildings saying which gladiator was
better than another. Propaganda was used
throughout the Roman Empire. One of the
most famous writers in Roman times was
Livy. We know that he expressed his ideas
and views in literature, and sometimes his
work was used for propaganda as it fitted
the views of what an ideal Roman should
be. I found this project fun as we got to
work with people we would not normally
work with; we also not only had some
freedom to choose a topic that interested
us but we also found out new, interesting
and important information which still has
relevance to us today.”
The View
Gallery
Sixth Form
Exhibition
Lucy White, U6N
The summer exhibition at The View
Gallery in Chingford was once again
an outstanding display of Sixth
Form artwork. The pieces ranged
from hyper-realistic to abstract art
with extremely different subjects
and messages. The inspiration
behind each of the paintings varied
differently and featured powerful
emotions and meanings about self-
identity or how we interact with
other people.
Films produced by the pupils were cleverly
projected onto the stairway wall, creating
a cinematic experience. These videos
showcased a different type of media and
posed interesting questions, they often
helped to explain the deeper meaning
behind the paintings. Audiences were
invited to enter the students’ artistic worlds
as they made their way towards the gallery
with the beautiful views of the sun setting
over the forest.
The evening was heightened by musical
performances from Mr Conington, Abi
Thompson and Tom Dean which provided
a lovely atmosphere and backdrop to the
artwork. The evening was a thoroughly
enjoyable experience and a great chance for
teachers, students and parents all to share an
appreciation for art and music.