By Connor, Lilly, Charlotte, Cecilia, Georgina, Piper, Missy, Libby & Ms Heslip
On Thursday 27th March, we represented SPC at the Southland round of the Kids' Lit Quiz held at Maruawai Junior Campus. We took two teams, with Connor Dickson as Manager/Reserve. We had all taken part in class quizzes this term, so the highest scorers made up our teams. Kids' Lit Quiz is an international competition invented 36 years ago by Quiz Master Wayne Mills who was pretty funny and a clear speaker. He used to be Chair of Children's Literature at Auckland University, but had to give up that post as more and more countries adopted KLQ. He & his team spend most of the year travelling to host the various Heats & Finals. Next year, Mr. Mills retires & his successor Alan Dingley (NZ’s Reading Ambassador) will be Quiz Master.
The results of the Southland Quiz were:
1st: | Halfmoon Bay School |
2nd: | James Hargest College, Team 3 |
3rd: | St Peter’s College, Team 2 Blue |
The quiz was really fun, easy in some parts & hard in others. One of our teams got third, the other came in the middle of the field. There were ten themed catagories with ten questions each. We can’t tell you what they are, as there are still a lot more Heats in other provinces to go, although they do mix up the questions a little from heat to heat. Questions can be anything to do with the English language's popular forms through the ages. There were questions on Greek & Roman legends, International folk tales, Classic fairytales, Shakespeare, Beatrix Potter, Children's books, Manga, Poetry, NZ authors & Myths, Super Heros, Films & many more. Our school came tops in two rounds, and won some spot prizes of cash & book vouchers for questions between rounds. It was hard not to put your hand up too soon for the spot prize questions. You only had one chance to get it right so it was good to wait until Mr. Mills had read the whole question.
Libby & Cecilia were the main scribes for each team. They had to write the answer that the majority of their team agreed on, even if they didn’t. Runners would come & pick up their answers between rounds.
Every team gets to nominate one round for double points. Most teams chose the same thing, but the round was harder than what most expected. St Peter's 2 Blue got the highest score 9/10 which added 18 points. There were only three points between first & third place. Winners, Half Moon Bay School, received $2000.00 to help fund their trip to Wellington for the NZ Final in May. If they win that, they will attend the 2025 World Final In Johannesburg, South Africa. James Hargest & St Peter’s team members all received book vouchers for 2nd & 3rd.
Our team advice to next year’s teams is to read broadly- you think you’ve read enough, but questions are way different to what you are expecting. Focus on main things of the book: illustrator, author, main characters' names, covers, where they live, what they look like- not so much small plot details. Read the blurbs about authors at the back of books. Don’t look at the scores too often (they are up on a screen) as we got really nervous knowing we could be in the running for a top spot. There is a Kids' Lit Quiz website that anyone can go to and try previous years' quizzes, which was really helpful. We found we had to be pretty quiet when discussing answers, as the teams around us were listening. Lilly says don’t sit with your back to the Quiz Master! We had a really good day finishing with lunch at McDonalds. We would recommend the experience to anyone who gets the chance to be in next year's teams. Thank you to our school for giving us the opportunity & to Ms Heslip for training & taking us.
Teams:
SPC 1 Red: Shane Omega, Piper Cunningham, Missy Wyatt, Libby Richardson.
SPC 2 Blue: Lilly Mantell, Charlotte Gullick, Cecilia Ryan, Georgina Gray
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