Self-Study Courses

COMING in 2025

COMING in 2025

We are currently completing these online courses.

Each will feature video and pdf content, all free to anyone who registers.

Higher Classical Studies

  • Higher Classical Studies is the course usually taken by Scottish school pupils at the age of 16/17.

    It is roughly comparable with English A Levels.

  • You would need to contact a local high school or college and ask if they would be willing to put you forward for the exam.

    If you are reading this and haven't spoken to a school or college (the SQA calls them "centres"), and you want to gain the SQA certificate for this course, then you have very much put the cart before the horse. Reach out to your local high school and check if this is viable.

  • In a word, no.

    It covers approximately two thirds of what is called the "taught course", that's to say, the material that would be covered if you were sitting in the classroom. It does not cover the Literature component (Yet - this is in development) or the coursework component (called "The Assignment"), or any internal assessments which centres often require candidates to sit.

  • Yes. The SQA requires candidates to cover either Roman or Greek Power and Freedom, and either Roman or Greek Religion.

    At Working Classicists we cover Roman Power and Freedom, and Greek Religion.

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Higher Classical Studies

Power and Freedom (Rome)

Looking at the fall of the Roman republic, the institutions of government in Rome and its provinces, as well as the role of social status, this is our complete taught course for the Roman component of the SQA’s Higher Classical Studies certificate.

Course handouts accompany the video material to give you the strongest chance of passing the exam.

What you’ll learn

  • A victim of its own success, Rome's neglect of its poorest citizens led to a conflict between oligarchs and reformers, with bloody and terrible results. The course looks at the impact of military reforms, unemployment, and a collapsing economy, and how its rulers failed to address the problems before it was too late.

  • Changing from Republican democracy to imperial autocracy, millions of people's lives were in the hands of the men, and systems, that governed the Roman occupied provinces. You will learn about the magistrates, institutions and imperial powers which determined the quality of life for people in Roman-occupied territories.

  • Enslaved people, freedpeople, and citizen men and women of different classes: Rome was a tremendous mix of humanity. In the course you will learn about many of these different groups.

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Higher Classical Studies

Religion and Belief (Greece)

The second part of our taught course, this time focusing on Greek Religion, Belief and Philosophy, introduces learners to the function and form of ancient Greek religion, including the role of state religion and its tension with other groups seeking to question the nature of supernatural influence on human life.

All the necessary content required to meet the SQA’s Religion and Belief (Greece) course specification.

What you’ll learn

  • Religion in ancient Greece was complicated. It was in some way egalitarian - but perhaps not egalitarian as you or I would recognise it - but it also had a great deal of status attached. The course will show you what the ancient Greeks worshipped, and how.

  • While many are aware of the mythology of Hades and Persephone, perhaps less widely-understood are the important roles played by women when death occurred, the burial and cremation customs, and the attitudes the living had towards the dead. All of this forms part of the course.

  • The ancient Greeks looked at death in many ways, as we do today, and the course will share some of the ways in which philosophical (sometimes cult-ish) thinking influenced attitudes to the afterlife, and to the gods themselves.