Greek to GCSE

This course offers a fast-track route to GCSE for those with limited time. Based on experience of what pupils find difficult, it concentrates on the essentials and the understanding of the principles, aiming to be user-friendly as well as laying the foundations.

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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.