Philip Vercueil, the Grade 7 teacher who accompanied the team to the finals, said Glenwood House was narrowly beaten out of third place by Manor Gardens, who has previously taken part in the international finals. "There was only a one point difference! Taking into consideration that it was the first time that we were competing at this level, we are extremely proud of the Glenwood team with their 4th place position."
The team qualified for this prestigious competition by winning the regional rounds held in Knysna, making them the top team in the Southern Cape.
It is the first time that this region has been included in this competition.
The team members were Ruby McGowan, Leah Sammon, Derick Hill and Dané Botha.
Learners from leading schools around the country took part in die SA finals, which was won Roedean Junior (Johannesburg). Amongst them were The Bay School (Cape Town), Clifton Prep (Durban), Manor Gardens(Durban), Pelham Primary (Pietermaritzburg), St Johns Prep (Johannesburg) and WHPS (Pretoria).
Vercueil said the competition was extremely stiff and many of the adults in the audience were stumped by the questions asked of these children. The teams were peppered with literary questions covering topics on cities, titles, opening lines of books, authors and folk tales.
After two hours of gruelling quick-fire questions, Roedean Junior was finally crowned to represent South Africa in the international finals being held in Durban later this year.
A total of 106 SA schools took part in the regional heats this year – 39% more than last year when 76 schools were in action.
Glenwood Hous Preparatory School finished in a worthy fourth place in the finals of the South African Kidzlit Quiz in Johannesburg last Saturday. Glenwood qualified for the finals by winning the regional finals members are from the left Derick Hill, Leah Samman, Ruby McGowan and Dané Botha.
