Leading article: Classics soap

It's Latin, Jim, but not as we knew it. The new e-learning initiative for Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) devised by the Cambridge School Classics Project may be teaching pupils about Roman history through the medium of a Coronation Street-style soap opera, according to its author, but it is causing a revival of the language in state secondary schools.

It's Latin, Jim, but not as we knew it. The new e-learning initiative for Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) devised by the Cambridge School Classics Project may be teaching pupils about Roman history through the medium of a Coronation Street-style soap opera, according to its author, but it is causing a revival of the language in state secondary schools. Mr Chips will be turning in his grave, but when he calms down he will find the new programme is not only prolonging the life of a language he held dear to his heart but helping pupils go on to study other languages, too.