February 2025 marked a year since the publication of the UK Class In Classics Report 2024. To mark the occasion and take stock, on Wednesday 5th February the NWCC and the Institute of Classical Studies hosted an online panel event ‘UK Class in Classics Report – One Year On’. This event provided an opportunity to assess the impact the report is having in the discipline. What key recommendations are being implemented; what examples of good practice can we share; what barriers have we encountered? It was also a chance to plan the next stages: what more can we do, and how can we work together to achieve our goals?
Katherine Harloe, Director of the ICS, launched the event with an introduction, before Lilah Grace and Mirko Canevaro, as founders of the NWCC and co-authors of the Report, gave an overview of the Report and the developments over the past year. These included lots of media attention and wide circulation: we are told by Lee Elliot Major, Professor of Social Mobility at Exeter, that the Report was even mentioned in the House of Lords, of all places! The NWCC also became an official affiliate group of the Alliance of Working Class Academics Worldwide, and we won the Working Classicists Award 2024 for Outstanding Collective Contribution. Our first local branch was created, in St Andrews; we implemented class and accent bias training in the School of History and Classics at the University of Edinburgh; we ran a short survey about what we (should) call our degrees, which responds to observations in the Report that there is a perceived class-based hierarchy between ‘Classics’ and ‘Classical Studies’; and we began to push for collection of class data in any possible institutional setting.
Kathryn Tempest, incoming Chair of the CUCD, joined us to deliver a response to the Report. She too highlighted the importance of collecting class data, and suggested that the CUCD might be able to help with this. She also raised the crucial issue of access to language learning. This was an important prompt for us as we are keenly aware that as a Network we need to tackle this issue head-on – watch this space for a language-centred event!
Alex Imrie, National Outreach Co-ordinator for the Classical Association of Scotland and Scottish Network Co-ordinator for Classics for All, talked to us about the aligned goals of the NWCC and the CAS and CfA. It was great to see the discourse in Scotland really coming together. Alex presented the current state of play of Classics in Scottish education, showing that Scotland may be more progressive than elsewhere in the UK, but it is still precarious. Classics remains one of the most unequal subjects. The Classical Association of Scotland are prioritising three of the Report’s key recommendations: more Classics in schools (recommendation 3), invest in outreach (recommendation 4), and create and advocate for different routes (recommendation 5). Alex shows, not just in his talk but in the amazing work he does, that targeted outreach works. Classical Studies in Scotland is one of the fastest growing subjects, especially at Nat 5 (up 211% since 2019) and Nat 4 (up 156%). Access to languages is a persistent problem, with too few Latin teachers and very few schools offering the subject. The CAS Ancient Voices programme is pivotal in widening access to ancient languages.
Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Professor of Classics Education and Public Policy at Durham University, made the important point that there is policy support for Classics subjects in primary and secondary schools. It is possible. Yet there is very little offering of Greek and Latin in state schools, and the offering is geographically clustered. We need to speak the language of policy makers, promoting Classics through routes such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Classics. Arlene talked through various approaches to embedding and advocating for classical education (to pinch ACE’s acronym [link]), from collaborating with museums and libraries, to engaging with popularising authors.
Reise Watson, PhD candidate in Ancient History at the University of St Andrews, talked to us about the first local branch of the NWCC, established in St Andrews. Their approach is based around both discussion and data, and they are conducting their own local survey, on the model of that behind the Report. The branch is founded on a principle of inclusivity on the grounds that, as Reise aptly put it, ‘everyone is included because everyone is affected’. Class inequalities affect us all. Reise has put together an astonishing 3 panels on class in Classics for the CA/CAS conference, to be held at St Andrews this July. Please join us for more discussion, solidarity and advocacy!