St. John's Team Wins Latin Forum 9th Year in a Row

Just call them "champitus."

That's the Latin word for "champions."

For the ninth year running, St. John’s Episcopal Parish Day School's Latin Team of seventh- and eight-graders won the Regional Latin Forum.

Teams from schools all over the Tampa Bay area competed Feb. 2 in categories including: creative, incompassing mosaics, painting, mapmaking and pottery; Olympika, the athletic division that included relay races, a 100-meter dash and disc throwing; and academic, with tests on mythology, customs and grammar.

St. John’s team swept all three categories to come out on top for the day. The students now go on to the state Latin Forum in April, at which the school also took first place last year for the second year in a row.

St. John’s School’s philosophy holds that the student who has a solid foundation in the classics and in the fundamentals is prepared to use them as a springboard for even greater learning and educational innovation.

The study of Latin at St. John’s begins in fifth grade, and is part of the way the school cultivates a love of language. The strong linguistic skills that students acquire at St. John’s serve them well as they progress through high school and college.

The regional and state Latin forums sponsored by the Florida Junior Classical League are one of the ways St. John’s students can test their knowledge in a fun, collegial environment.

The Florida Junior Classical League is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the study of Latin, Greek and classical civilization.

The National Junior Classical League, the parent organization of the FJCL, is the largest academic organization in America for middle and high school students, and Florida’s is the third largest NJCL chapter in the world.

St. John’s Episcopal Parish Day School, 906 South Orleans Ave., Tampa, is the second-oldest Episcopal school in Florida, celebrating its 62^nd year of educational excellence. The school’s mission is to prepare each of its students in grades kindergarten through eighth for lifelong intellectual and spiritual growth by providing an educational experience within a nurturing Christian environment.

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