Event archive

2025

• ‘Why Cicero Matters: in conversation with Dr Vittorio Buffachi’:

Prof Holmes-Henderson at ClassicsFest, Newcastle Lit and Phil (May 2025)

• ‘Classics in Schools’

Prof Holmes-Henderson at ClassicsFest, Newcastle Lit and Phil (May 2025)

Taking Classics Education research global: FIEC 2025

The international ambitions of CERES will be explored in greater depth when Arlene chairs two panels at the FIEC (Federation of international Classical Associations) conference in Wroclaw, Poland, in July 2025. Bringing together colleagues (at all career stages) from Euroclassica, the UK, Belgium and the USA, she will investigate the appetite for an international network of classics educators, and will identify next steps to make this a reality.

Who are the CERES PhD students?

CERES hosts the following PhD stduents:

Katharine Russell: The Noise of the Girls: contemporary female fiction and the reframing of school students' classical imaginations

Iaomie Malik: Factors affecting Latin provision in primary schools in the North East of England

Fiona Henderson: What Makes a Monster? A study on children’s interpretations of heroic agency and monstrous nature in the Perseus myth.

Lucy Charilaou: Foreign Language Education in England: Exploring Learners’ and Teachers’ Attitudes & Motivations 

Angela Nash: Exploring the impact of Latin teaching on neurodiverse teenage learners

New publication: Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in British Secondary Education

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Edith Hall have written an important new book on the history of Classical Civilisation and Ancient History in British schools. It will be published by Liverpool University Press in August 2025 and will have two launch events. The first launch event will be hosted in Parliament by Dr Peter Swallow MP on Monday 8^th September. The second event will be hosted at Marylebone Boys’ School (London). Both events will celebrate the 60^th birthday of Classical Civilisation as an examined subject in England, and will allow policymakers, politicians, academics and teachers to engage in conversation about the future of these subjects in the curriculum.

In 2024, Classical Civilisation was OCR exam board’s fasted growing GCSE subject and exam entries for Ancient History are at their highest level since the qualification began. Both subjects are taught widely in the state-maintained sector.

Making headlines again: Classics education in Prisons

Since September 2024, Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Edith Hall have been teaching Classics in prisons. The first prison they visited was HMP Deerbolt near Barnard Castle in County Durham. Over four months, they introduced adult male (and some youth offenders) to the art, archaeology, literature, philosophy and drama from the ancient world. Learner feedback was incredible positive, both about the content of the course, and about the friendliness of Durham University professors. The podcasting team from ‘Against the Lore’ captured much of this feedback (by interviewing learners in situ) which is now available here.

They taught intensively for a weel in a youth offender institution in the Midlands in March 2025 and in a women’s prison in June 2025. Once again The Guardian covered this project and its impact:

Visiting local schools

In March 2025, Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Edith Hall, Magdalena Zira and Phil Horky visited Polam Hall School in Darlington to lead several enrichment sessions for students of Classics and Drama. Dr Zira is an award-winning playwright from Cyrpus so she inspired Darlington pupils about the employment opportunities in creative industries.

Prof Horky led sessions on philosophy, Edith Hall led sessions on ancient drama and Prof Holmes-Henderson led sessions on rhetoric, argumentation and effective communication.

Teacher Rosalind Stewart at Polam Hall, and her students, wrote to the Durham University CERES team, thanking them for an ‘utterly inspiring and unforgettable day’.

Access to Classics education in England’s North East: teacher event

We ran a two-day event for teachers and stduents of classical subjects from across the North East in February 2025. On Day 1, Durham University challenged learners to a ‘treasure hunt’ in the Oriental Museum. This was great fun! They then enjoyed a handling session with archaeology colleagues and a visit to the university special collections library where they saw lots of Latin!

Day 2 provided professional development for teachers at Hardian’s Wall. By working in partnrship with the Wall’s curator (Frances McIntosh, English Heritage) and colleagues from the Great North Museum Hancock, teachers were supported to learn more about the legacy of the Romans across the North East.

In collaboration with Dr Laura Hope (co-ordinator of the Classics for All North East hub), Arlene is developing a network of teachers from primary, secondary and tertiary education settings across the North East.

The work to ‘map’ access to classical subjects in the North East is now complete and finsings will be published as ‘Hadrian in hiding? Investigating access to Classics education in the North East of England’, a chapter in Edith Hall’s forthcoming book ‘Classical encoutners in England’s North East’ (Routledge, 2026).

Re-establishing the Classics All-Party Parliamentary Group

Arlene Holmes-Henderson founded the Classics All-Party Parliamentary Group with help from the British Academy Higher Education Policy Team, Prof Tim Whitmarsh (Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge) and the Classical Association. A cross-party forum, led by former Classics teacher and Durham staff-member Dr Peter Swallow MP, it offers a national strategic platform for discussing issues affecting the learning and teaching of classical subjects in UK schools, colleges, universities, museums and communities. It held three meetings in 2024-2025: the first was in October 2024 which focussed on membership and agenda setting; the second in March 2025 focussed on Classics and the Curriculum and Assessment Review process and the third in June 2025 focussed on Greek language and culture education.

Making headlines

The Guardian interviewed Arlene about her work to widen access to Classics locally, nationally and internationally:

2024

CERES Launch Event

In mid-December 2024, Durham welcomed teachers, policymakers, charity representatives and researchers to an event which launched the new Durham Centre for Classics Education Research and EngagementS (CERES).

The culmination of more than a decade of collaborative vision-shaping, more than 70 attendees celebrated with talks, tea, cake and fizz.

Founding Director of CERES Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson outlined the planned activities of CERES in the short and medium term. Deputy Director Edith Hall described the recent successful partnership with NOVUS, the prison education charity, to teach Classics in an HMP in North East of England.

The Centre’s first two PhD students, both qualified Classics schoolteachers, Iaomie Malik and Katharine Russell talked about their research projects. Attendees were delighted to hear from 1st year postgraduates who are conducting practice-based research.

Attendees were asked to provide input to shape the research centre’s strategy and identify priorities. They did so generously and the subsequent discussions revealed just how promising a sub-field of Classics research Classics Education is. By inviting perspectives from diverse stakeholders across theatre, business, journalism and policymaking, we identified opportunities for innovation which will enrich existing academic and educational approaches.