Ovid for All - West Midlands

1. Please let us know your school will be entering by emailing us at bham.classicsforall@contacts.bham.ac.uk 
2. Familiarise yourself with our latest Guidance Document for more on our category guidelines, student permission requirements and terms of entry.
3. Read about how to prepare a class for listening to myths here.
4. Teachers judge the initial round and create a final shortlist.  A certificate is available for teachers to award to all the pupils who have taken part. Download here
5. Teachers submit a maximum of 3 entries per school by Monday 11th November 2024. 

In June/ July Classics for All provides a free online session for teachers to give them a detailed overview of the competition, how it works, and guidance for teaching the materials and free access to all the materials they will need and share the recording.

If you missed the online session, you can always re-watch the recordings 

In the first half of the autumn term, teachers deliver sessions based on 1 or more of the stories being used that year (in class or clubs) using the free resources provided.

Pupils come up with individual creative responses to the myths.

The competition can be run in class time with a whole year cohort or with a select group as part of a club. 

Schools will do the first round of judging, and will choose which 3 entries are to be submitted for shortlisting. This could be done by the teacher running the competition, a small committee, or by someone separate. 

The shortlisted entries will be judged by our panel. It is made up of three judges:

1. Hebe Barlow, Network co-ordinator. 
2. Dr Elena Theodorakopoulos, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Birmingham
3. Dr Michael Amess, Assistant Professor Secondary Teacher Education: English at the University of Birmingham. 

The competition is open to all KS3 state school pupils and primary school pupils.

Both individual and small group entries will be permitted. 

That's up to you! We suggest three myths each year, which are rotated to keep things interesting. If you would prefer to focus on one myth, explore more than three, or would feel more confident looking at one of the other myths, it's entirely your choice. However, if time is limited, we would recommend focusing on one myth in depth.  

We recommend a minimum of 4 hours/ lessons/ club teaching time.

You may want to have the pupils produce their response to these myths in school hours, or perhaps this will be something for them to do at home. 

Some schools spend longer and cover more myths, particularly if the competition is used as an entry point for a Classics club, or to advertise for GCSE's.

Teachers have the opportunity to attend a free training and information session. This is recorded and shared for those unable to attend it.

The competition is based on these free resources: Classic Tales | Free mythology resources for listening and learning. The Classic Tales storytelling resources were created by CSCP in partnership with storytellers Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden.

The Classics Tales tab 'Ovid Competition' has some additional resources, including video guidance. (Remember that this is a different competition to Ovid in the West Midlands).

We have additional resources available in this shared folder Ovid Resources. This contains downloaded audio recordings, with each story accompanied by summaries, transcripts, teaching suggestions and weblinks etc. 

We also have an annual teacher information session on line to explain the competition and the rationale. If you missed the training session, or if you would simply like to refresh your memory, you can find the recordings here. 

  Nothing! It's entirely free to enter and all resources and training are free. 

For the past two years prizegiving has been held in the Exchange building in Birmingham. However, after feedback from schools the 2023 prizegiving was held at the University of Birmingham. 

The 2024 prizegiving will also be held at the University of Birmingham. 

The date and further details will be provided soon.

Yes, the Ovid for All competition is also run via our networks in Bristol and South West and the North.

There are slight regional variations in how the competitions are run so please contact the Network Coordinators directly:

Classics for All North, and Bristol & South West - Alice Case: alicecase@classicsforall.org.uk 

https://classicsforallnorth.org.uk/ovid-for-all