St Augustine’s Classical Christian College is set to open in WA next year, offering subjects such as Latin, Greek, logic and rhetoric to students from kindergarten to Year 12, partly in response to the perceived “dumbing down” of modern education.
The school has received approval from Education Minister Liz Constable to be officially established as a school. The institution has been offering private tutoring to home-schooled students in Middle Swan since 2008.
Classical Christian education is based on a British model and aims to put an emphasis on character development and gaining wisdom, apart from teaching facts and skills to prepare students for the workforce.
Latin will be a core subject and children would start memorising Latin songs and chants in kindergarten. By Year 2, they would be conjugating Latin verbs and students will be tackling Greek when they reach high school.As well as the Bible, students would study ancient Greece and Rome, the Byzantine empire, medieval history and the renaissance.
When the school opens, St Augustine’s principal Stephen Hurworth expects to enrol between 80 and 120 students at the school.