The Faculty is delighted to announce that we have been named the recipient of the University Outreach Award at Classics for All’s 6th annual Impact Awards.
The award recognises the Faculty’s extensive outreach and widening participation initiatives designed to break down barriers and make classical subjects accessible to students from all socio-economic backgrounds. Classics for All has praised the breadth of Cambridge's outreach, noting the great variety of projects and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from pupils, teachers, and parents alike.
The Faculty and the Museum of Classical Archaeology, drive a wide range of free nationwide initiatives prioritising state school students, including school visits, webinars, open days, and targeted financial support. Key areas of impact include:
Primary School Engagement: Now in its 12th year, the Minimus Latin programme and it's 21 student volunteers last year to teach Latin to over 850 local primary school pupils.
Summer Schools: In partnership with the Sutton Trust, the Faculty has run a residential summer school for at least a decade, giving widening participation students their first hands-on experience with university life and ancient languages.
Interdisciplinary Work: To counter the public narrative that humanities and sciences are entirely separate disciplines, a collaboration with the Department of Archaeology introduced the Sciences of the Past Day. This initiative shows students fed a "STEM-only" narrative how scientific methods are vital to studying the ancient world.
Teacher Support: The Faculty creates free classroom resources and hosts Continuous Professional Development (CPD) sessions, helping teachers across the country establish after-school clubs, use the ancient world to explore modern concepts, and to develop their ancient languages teaching methods.
This recognition from Classics for All celebrates the hard work of colleagues across the Faculty and the Museum, and highlights our sincere commitment to widening participation. We will continue working to ensure that the ancient world remains open to everyone, actively investing in and nurturing the next generation of classical scholars from all backgrounds.
Access and Outreach Coordinator, Molly Willett, receiving the Award on behalf of the Faculty at the Award ceremony in London