“I chose Ancient History because it was something new and interesting that wasn’t available to study at high school. I have always enjoyed History and Ancient History felt like an opportunity to learn about a different period of time. A typical class session can involve a discussion, such as exploring how Augustus changed the Roman Republic from a democracy to a monarchy, and the extent to which the implementation was successful and accepted. This week, we are looking at gender and the representation of women in Sparta compared to women in Greece, through religious song, an Athenian comedy play and an ancient statue.

Following a class discussion, we will write an essay comparing how reliable each source is to the others and how we feel about the differences in the way gender is represented today. We’ve already been on the College trip to Greece, where we looked at the landscape, climate and culture, the distances between the cities, the artefacts in the museums from these periods, to help bring to life what we have learnt in class. There are local visits as part of the course, including to the Manchester Museum, and this gets us thinking about what’s happening in other areas of Europe, Persia and Egypt and how these countries compare to the civilisations we are studying.”