In the Autumn term as part of our Stretch and Challenge for all, Upper III Latin students made use of Classical Tales retellings of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and produced a creative response to the myth of Daedalus and Icarus using either performance; artefact; creative writing and animation. Projects could have been a modern reinvention of the myth, or an artistic representation of the original story.
Students had both lesson and homework time to plan and develop their creative project. The best work in each category was then selected and submitted as school entries to the Ovid Competition – organised by the Cambridge School Classics Project and open to all Year 7 students across the UK.
This year the department received an overwhelming response from our students, therefore we decided to organise a fair to give the opportunity to all Upper III Latin students to show and present their works. The fair was a great success!
On the 9 December, the Abbey finalists will attend an online ceremony where they will enjoy a storytelling performance by Hugh Lupton, take part in an Ovid Challenge quiz, and have the opportunity to meet the judges who will announce the winners in their categories during an awards ceremony presentation.
Below are the words of Nikita in Upper III, who worked alongside Stephanie Simon in the making of a fabulous animation of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus.
“Making our animation was a long process that spanned just over four weeks of work. Stephanie and I created multiple plans and just organising the project took about a week of work.
We tried to evenly split each “section” of the project by the weeks, and we ended up doing a lot of the work during our half term break. The animation process was created using FlipaClip, the art using Infinite Painter and the music using physical instruments: a flute and a piano.
After every 30 seconds or so was compiled in the animation, I would consistently send Stephanie the progress. We spent a lot of time both within and outside of school hours working together. Overall, I personally really enjoyed the experience, working collaboratively with Stephanie and really getting to know her better. The story was the essence of it all and I think it is a fabulous tale with a firm moral!
I liked the fair because it was a chance to show everyone our work and to see what amazing things others had created! I enjoyed visualising and portraying the story in our own way and then having the opportunity to compare ours with entries both in the classroom and nationwide!”