A quick Q & A with Mrs Drummond, Head of Classics

• What do you love most about teaching Classics?

The most rewarding thing for me is when I see students start to fall in love with my subject. I have had many students who have gone on to study Classics at A Level and some that have been or are now at University studying for a Classics degree. To be able to enthuse my students enough that they want to carry on and learn more, is a wonderful feeling.

• What did you do before you joined St Ed’?

Before St Ed's I taught A Level Classical Civilisation at Chichester College. Prior to that I was in the Royal Navy for 23 years, so teaching was a complete career change but one I have never regretted.

• A career highlight:

I love leading the trips to Athens and Rome/Pompeii. The faces of children who have never laid eyes on the Acropolis, Parthenon, Colosseum or Pantheon but are seeing it for the first time, never fails to move me. I am lucky to be able to travel with a fantastic team and together I think we've created something very special.

• Do you have a particular area of interest in your subject?

My particular passion is architecture and sculpture in conjunction with the narrative of the person who commissioned it. I am currently working on my preliminary thesis as part of my Masters in Classics. I have chosen the Colossus of Nero partly because I like piecing together the fragmentary evidence of its existence but mostly because I have always been fascinated by the Emperor Nero and this gives me the chance to learn a lot more about him (bad Emperor or just misunderstood!)

Form 9 Classics Students creating playdoh depictions of stories of Heracles/ Hercules.