On Monday, a monster 50 teams competed in the South London heat of the international Kids’ Lit Quiz competition, with the winners marching onto the National Final in early December.

Both Emanuel ‘A’ (Katie, Isabelle, Edie and Alex) and Emanuel ‘B’ (Lakshmi, Annabel, Isabella and Imogen) went into the competition with spirits high after having been very committed in practice. The opposition included a ‘who’s who’ of top South London schools and we knew we would have to be at the top of our game to do well.

In the end Emanuel ‘A’ finished a commendable 13th and ‘B’ finished 20th which was one of the highest placed second teams, also beating a number of ‘A’ teams. Having both teams in the top half was very pleasing, however, we did have both ‘A’ and ‘B’ in the top ten going into the final few rounds, before fading near the end, which was slightly disappointing.

‘A’ were delighted to score a perfect 10/10 in Round 7 on ‘Realms’ and win individual prizes; however, they inexplicably followed it with a zero in the next round on ‘Riddles’. It was a cripplingly difficult round, with most schools only scoring scores as low as two or three. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’ also jointly won other rounds, but both missed out on the prizes in the sudden death play-off questions.

The competition has a ‘Joker Round’ where the team chooses in advance which round they will double their scores. This involves a lot of luck, and both Emanuel teams lost their luck on their joker and scored poorly when it was played. However, as a consolation Mr Healy was delighted to win an audience prize!

To finish 13th ‘A’ scored 70 points and ‘B’ scored 63 out of 100. The winning school, Dulwich Prep, scored 83 and the top four finishes were:

  • 1st: Dulwich Prep ‘A’
  • 2nd: Latymer Upper ‘B’
  • 3rd: Rokeby
  • 4th: King’s College Junior ‘A’

Both Emanuel teams were terrific representatives of the school and really enjoyed themselves. Quiz Club now takes a break until after February half-term when we start preparing for the other book quiz event we enter: The CWIZZ.

How would you have done? Here are ten sample questions from the event:

  • What was the name of the Viking boy who learned to train his dragon?
  • In Jacqueline Wilson’s How to Survive Summer Camp what activity did Stella hate most?
  • In Nevermore how old was Morrigan Crowe when she was doomed to die?
  • What is the first book in Robert Muchamore’s CHERUB series called?
  • Which month of the year did the Titanic sink in?
  • Who lives at 742 Evergreen Terrace in Springfield?
  • What is the name of the Demi-God training centre in Long Island?
  • In Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingles Wilder, which of the sisters is blind?
  • Name either of the pubs in the Harry Potter novels.
  • Which group of kids usually took ginger beer with them whenever they went on an adventure?

Tony Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)

Emanuel School B team (Emanuel School A team pictured above)