Thurso High School teacher receives award for transforming classics department
The “infectious enthusiasm” of a Thurso High School (THS) teacher has seen a major rise in pupils studying classics with 70 per cent achieving an A grade.
Jordan Lynch, along with the school, received a Classics for All 2024 Impact Award, which recognises his transformative achievement to build a classical studies department from scratch at THS.
Dr Alex Imrie, a tutor in classics at the University of Edinburgh, is the Scottish network co-ordinator of the Classics for All charity and says that Jordan has undertaken a wealth of CPD (continuing professional development) along with other training to go “from a standing start to offering classical studies to around nearly 50 pupils”.
“Such a rapid success is credit to his hard work and dedication, all the more so owing to him being distant from those cities with larger concentrations of classics teachers, such as Glasgow, to call on for peer support,” said Dr Imrie.
“Jordan himself has been exceptionally modest, but this is a real success story against a landscape where it is still quite difficult to offer pupils the chance to study these subjects.”
Dr Imrie said that his state school experience in Edinburgh involved no exposure to the classics.
“The landscape for introducing classics in Scotland continues to be a challenge. Despite this, since launching A Level Classics in 2022, with the help of Classics for All, Thurso’s classics course enrolment has [dramatically risen] as a result of their teacher’s infectious enthusiasm.
“Starting with just 10 students, Thurso now has 47 pupils studying classics, with 70 per cent achieving an A grade.”
Jordan gave a speech and accepted the award virtually, at a social media event organised by Classics for All, as his partner had recently given birth.
Classics for All is a charity committed to expanding access to Classical Studies, Ancient History, Latin or Ancient Greek.
Since 2017, the charity has been supporting state schools to introduce pupils to these subjects, motivated by the principle that “they should never be the preserve of a fee-paying minority” and that children up and down the country deserve the opportunity to experience the great variety of topics, regardless of where they live and whatever their background is.
