As we approach the end of the annual GCSE and A Level season, the national conversation invariably turns to the merits of different subject and career choices.

Alarmingly for our industry, in just 10 years, English has gone from being the most popular A level topic to falling out of the top 10 today.

The outlook is equally dire for modern languages, and classics as a study topic is pretty much moribund. And if you look at enrolment figures for different university courses, the humanities are losing out to STEM; Rishi Sunak banging the drum for maths a few months back probably didn’t help.

Should our industry care? Although my motivation is likely to be different, I’m with classicist Dame Mary Beard when she says:

“Do we want a world where no-one can read Homer or understand Monteverdi? Only a very tiny minority would think that. So let’s shout about it".

Having people who study not just humanities but specifically classics is vital to the future of our industry. To understand why, let’s remind ourselves of the essence of our industry promise.