2024 Latin Reading Competitions
Students in Year 9 and 10 recently competed in the Latin Reading Competitions for their year groups, held at the University of Sydney and St Ignatius’ College, Riverview.
The purpose of the competitions is to hear Latin read aloud as it was back in the courtrooms and poetry recitations of Ancient Rome. Students compete in solo verse, solo prose and group verse recitations and are judged on their accuracy of pronunciation as well as their ability to bring out the meaning and emotion of a passage. Year 10 students are also given an unseen passage which they must read aloud after only 10 minutes preparation time.
The nights are a lot of fun, with students able to meet other Latin students from schools around Sydney and participate in the singing of Latin songs such as the ‘hoci poci’.
SCEGGS achieved wonderful results in both competitions.
- Bridget Murray placed first overall in the Year 10 competition.
- Pascale Otton placed second in the solo verse for Year 9.
- Jess Weatherall of Year 10 and Yang Zhou of Year 9 were both selected to represent SCEGGS in the finals and did a wonderful job.
The group verse is the hardest section, with all students required to memorise the passage for recitation and speak as one cohesive group. Unfortunately our Year 9 SCEGGS group was too small to be considered for the judging, but they spoke wonderfully and with excellent cohesion.
Chloe Hardwick Jones
Latin Teacher
