The quizmasters and their supporters, from left: Carol Coley, Georgie-Rose Boyd, Esme MacGillvray, Emma Coley, Thomas Giltrap, Kay Greed and Principal Dale Burden.
A team of Year 7 and 8 students from St Peter’s School won the regional Lit Quiz competition held at Southwell School recently, where 51 teams competed. This has qualified the team for nationals, to be held in Wellington on Sunday, June 10.
They won a total of $1000 ($250 each). The Lit Quiz is a popular international literature quiz for students aged 10 – 13. It was founded in New Zealand by Wayne Mills and quizzes are held each year. Teacher in charge Becki Botherway said the students only had six weeks to prepare for the competition. “We held twice-weekly practises in the library putting together lots of quizzes on different genres of literature, for example, myths and legends, classics, picture books and more,” she said.
Students were encouraged not only to read but to watch movies based on books and listen to audiobooks. But of course, the main emphasis was for them to have fun, enjoy reading, and learn about some new books they may like to read.
The team is busy preparing for nationals by practising four times a week. Becki said the format of nationals is very different.
“The questions are more complex, there are long oral questions and the team has to press a buzzer and orally give the answer. In the regionals, the team answered the 10 questions on a sheet of paper,” she explained.
There will be five categories at nationals, but the students don’t know what they will be about.
“Naturally the aim is to make the world final in July, which will be held in Auckland,” said Becki. Each year the final is held in a different country.
