On Wednesday 19th June Year 4 welcomed Mr Watson, a parent of one of our Junior students, into Wakefield Girls’ Junior section for a fascinating workshop exploring ancient Greek myths, heroes, gods and goddesses. 

In Year 4 we have been studying ancient Greek civilization in quite some depth as part of our humanities curriculum, with a highlight being our ancient Greek theme day in May. Hence, we were delighted to be joined by Mr Watson to discover even more. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, so it was very interesting to listen to these ancient stories and to make connections with the modern literature that we have studied.

Discussion turned to many of the key themes that permeate the stories in Greek mythology, such as family, friendship, honour, love, revenge and religion.

Excitingly, Mr Watson brought in various sources for our students to study; they thoroughly enjoyed looking at different versions of the ancient Greek myths from beautiful graphic novels to books written in Greek!

Students’ developed their knowledge of many different characters and plots in ancient Greek myths and realised the impact that these stories have on modern day life. They were particularly surprised to find out how characters such as Fluffy and Buckbeak, from the Harry Potter book series, have their roots in ancient Greek mythology! 

Thank you to Mr Watson for joining us in school and sharing his passion for Greek mythology with our students. 

Mrs S Rowbotham 

Year 4 teacher