Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson has thrown her weight behind a cash-strapped school’s bid to continue teaching Classical Greek. Faced with squeezed budgets, Camden School for Girls in north London has resorted to asking members of the public for money so it can carry on offering the classical language at GCSE and A-Level, the Camden New Journal reports. And Thompson was reportedly one of the first donors, stumping up £500.

The school’s fundraising target is £30,000, which organisers say will keep classes going for three more years. The total currently stands at around £5,000. “Greek is a springboard into higher education, not only into Classics courses but also into a range of fields that require analytical, linguistic, historical or cultural competencies,” said the appeal issued by the comprehensive secondary school for girls. Gerald Clark, secretary of Camden National Education Union said: “It’s a sad state of affairs when state-funded schools need to raise their own money to keep courses going. “This wouldn’t be necessary if the government had maintained levels of real-terms funding to schools, but the truth is that, although the government continues to say schools have never had more funding, this is because schools have more pupils than ever.”

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