Delphi's Guide to Athens now available!

Hi everybody,

We’re delighted to tell you that Delphi’s Guide to Athens, our child-friendly section of the site, is now open! This interactive story covers history, philosophy and much more – and the best part is that it is completely free to access, making it a perfect resource for the classroom.

This resource started life with my visit to Athens earlier on this year (which I blogged about at the time). While I was there, I decided to sit with my notebook in as many different sites as I possibly could and write about what life would have been like for Delphi. From these scribbled stories and photographs from the trip, the idea of Delphi’s Guide to Athens grew and grew. The stories got polished up, we put in all the information I had learned from my trip (and lots of books) and Rosie excelled herself yet again by bringing Athens to life with her remarkable drawings. What we’ve got now (I hope) is one of the best resources on Ancient Greece that a teacher could possibly hope for.

Delphi visits the Pnyx, the birthplace of democracy

We’ve included over 25 different locations from Ancient Athens, and each page contains:

• A short story of what happened when Delphi got there

• Drawings of what it would have looked like

• Photographs of what it looks like now

• The best facts about each place

• Information about the culture, beliefs and people of Ancient Greece

• A big question, inspired by the place, to get children thinking!

This resource can be used for all sorts of things:

• Child-friendly research. The stories and facts bring Ancient Greece to life and will develop children’s understanding of what it was like to live in Ancient Athens. This might help children research a project about Ancient Greece, in class or for homework.

• Philosophy discussions or enquiries. There are all sorts of questions that Delphi thinks of as she wonders around the city – and each one can form the basis of a philosophy enquiry.

• Fun and interactive storytelling. Lead a class through the city, following Delphi’s stories and choosing where to go next, choose-your-own-adventure style!

• As a stimulus for learning across the curriculum. Use as a stimulus for a class project, reading and writing activities or almost anywhere else in the curriculum.

• To learn more about Delphi, her home and the world of Delphi the Philosopher.

• A child-friendly guide to Athens today if you are taking the family on holiday!

Explore famous locations like the Theatre of Dionysus

We hope you want to check it out! You can find the new children’s section of our site here and the information page about Delphi’s Guide to Athens here.

Register Your Interest to trial the resources

We’d love to get your involvement in how you’re using our resources. We’re looking to work with a group of schools who are using Delphi resources, to support you and hear your feedback. If you’re interested in trying some new activities, or would like some printable resources for Delphi’s Guide to Athens to trial, you can register your interest here.

We’ll be in touch soon to hear about your thoughts and we’ll support you in any way we can with your use of Delphi resources.

Enquiry Packs and Delphi the Philosopher available to download

Don’t forget, our Enquiry Store is now open, containing our complete set of philosophy enquiry stories and resources, starting from just over a fiver. Or if you want to bring philosophy to your class in a full scheme of work to develop children's learning skills, you can download the complete scheme of work for Delphi the Philosopher here.

We’re just about to start teaching the scheme with our classes, and we’re looking forward to showing you what we get up to!

This completes our first ‘wave’ of resources, though we have lots more planned for the future! We’d love as many people as possible to meet Delphi, so please tell all your friends and colleagues about us! If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Thank you so much for all your support. Whether you’re starting to teach with Delphi, or are considering giving it a try, we wish you a fantastic start to the school year.

Dave Whitney

Delphi Philosophy