By Lucy Carroll
Every summer break for the past six years, Hugo Sharkey has joined a week-long Latin course to sharpen his skills reading and translating the classical language.
“People wonder what the point is studying a language that isn’t widely spoken. But it enriches the way you think,” says Sharkey, who is among just 114 students taking Latin for this year’s Higher School Certificate.
Sydney Grammar Latin students Felix Lin, Hugo Sharkey and Rory Lambert took the Latin HSC exam on Friday.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“I like to call it maths with a soul because it involves problem-solving, but it has a human element that makes it fascinating,” the Sydney Grammar student says.
HSC Latin enrolments have tumbled by 30 per cent over the decade, amid a broader collapse in foreign language participation for final-year school exams. In Sydney, 28 schools, made up of mostly private schools such as Sydney Grammar and all-girls Abbotsleigh, offered the language this year.
Eight public selective schools, including Caringbah High and St George Girls’, have students taking the ancient language and North Sydney Boys has kept the course after a fierce backlash from parents in 2019 when the school threatened to scrap it.
Sharkey was among 62 students who sat the three-unit Latin extension exam on Friday. It included questions on texts from lyric poet and satirist Horace and Roman poet Juvenal.
North Sydney Girls students Josephine Mao and Guinevere Eatough were among the 62 enrolled in the three unit HSC Latin course.Credit: Dylan Coker
“Studying Latin, you can see how human nature changes very little across millennia, even if society changes a lot,” he says.
At North Sydney Girls, year 12 student Guinevere Eatough said sitting her final Latin exam on Friday was bittersweet. “The texts have such vivid imagery. Horace is more fun, the language is more colloquial, and Juvenal is more intense,” she says.
“It is also fun picking up the parallels in the modern world. And it’s interesting to see the enduring morals as well.”
Louella Perrett from the Classical Language Teachers Association said while Latin enrolments had declined, there were other students taking it as part of the International Baccalaureate.
“There can be a tendency to push students to do a minimum number of HSC units, which can negatively impact language numbers,” she says.
“There are also myths Latin is too difficult, boring or irrelevant. When students study features of Cicero or Virgil’s The Aeneid they are studying ancient culture and the power of language.”
Teaching Latin has shifted from being abstract and grammar-heavy, Perrett said, and that the schools that offer it from year 7 now use stories to teach it. “Over 60 per cent of English words come from Latin. Through studying the language, students are confronted with a different way of being, a different way of thinking,” she said.
Universities Admissions Centre marketing manager Kim Paino said only a small cohort took Latin because it was typically offered by private schools with “a history of instruction in the subject and experienced teachers to go along with it”. There is a roughly even split of boys and girls sitting the Latin exams this year. Last year, the median mark in Latin continuers was 89.
Nikita Badve is the only HSC Latin extension student at Sydney Girls High this year.Credit: Louise Kennerley
“The students that take it tend to be higher-performing students who do well in all their subjects, which does lead to positive scaling effects,” she said.
Nathan Bottomley, head of classical languages at Sydney Grammar, said the school had about 16 Latin extension students this year.
“Like learning art history, trigonometry or ancient history, it’s about becoming part of a discipline that has united people for hundreds of years,” he said.
He said the subject’s intimidating image lingered from when Latin was taught using tables and lists. It had now become more approachable through syllabus changes, he said.
Perrett said there was a short supply of teachers.
“Most students don’t get the chance to be exposed to it in high school,” she said.
Anne Rogerson, a Latin lecturer at the University of Sydney, said the language was seen “as a privileged subject, associated with elite schools. I think it needs to be accessible to everybody”.
For another HSC Latin student at Sydney Grammar, Rory Lambert, the experience studying the language has been a “rollercoaster”.
“In year 7, I had absolutely no clue what Latin or the classics were. I remember thinking classics referred to English literature,” he said.
“Thanks to my teacher Mr Gibbins he made it fun, and I found a love for the language. Ancient history and Latin complement each other when you study them together.”
Sydney Girls High student Nikita Badve said Latin was “the perfect balance of everything I love”.
“I enjoy the rigour of translating unseen texts. The course is also unique in that it offers an opportunity for very close literary analysis,” she said.
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