About the greek summer school
The first JACT Greek Summer School was in 1968, in Bedford College, in Regent’s Park, London. For the next seventeen years, until 1985, it was at Dean Close School in Cheltenham, and since then it has been at Bryanston School in Blandford Forum, Dorset. After 52 consecutive years, the COVID-19 pandemic meant there was no summer school in 2020, so 2023 sees the 55th JACT Greek Summer School.
In the mid-1960s, Classics in general and Greek in particular were endangered subjects. The mission and inspiration of the summer school have always been to support and enhance the teaching and learning of ancient Greek in UK schools and universities, at all levels from absolute scratch to post- A Level, and especially to give access to the Greek language to those from schools where it exists precariously or not at all. The declining fortune of Greek in secondary schools has meant that the large majority of summer school students have always been from independent schools, but significant and growing numbers come from state schools. An impressive number of established Classics teachers in schools and universities, and an appreciable proportion of summer school tutors, began Greek at the summer school.