Classics Reading Competition

The Classics Reading Competition has run for over 70 years at the University of Leeds, and is a celebration of Classics, Reading and Performance. It’s a great opportunity to introduce Classics to school students already familiar with English, History and Drama, highlighting the links to their current subjects and developing their oracy/public speaking skills in an exciting way. For students already studying Latin and Ancient Greek, it’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase their reading skills to our judges!

Key Stage 2, 3, 4 and 5 students are invited to choose one (or two) of the categories, read the corresponding text and prepare their entries. Teachers are asked to enter the competition by 23:59 on 22 March 2024 and submit entry paperwork by 23:59 17 April 2024. 

All students entering the competition and their teacher(s) will be invited to the University of Leeds campus on the 24 April 2024 at 17:00-19:30 to speak/perform their entry in front of a panel of University of Leeds academic judges, who will make their decisions and announce our winners!

[The Classics Reading Competition] was one of the highlights of my secondary school experience. I can still remember the opening lines of the first piece I recited, aged 12. I took part again several years later (reciting part of Ariadne’s speech from Catullus 64), which helped build my confidence in the subject. Most importantly, the competition made the idea of university seem accessible and exciting. And like the JACT Latin summer school (which was transformative for me), it showed me that there was a community of other people out there who cared about this stuff and were even willing to dedicate their lives to it.

- Professor Verity Platt (Department of Classics, Cornell University)

You can find the 2024 privacy notice for this project here.