Thursday 21 May 2015 GSAL Junior School played host to some of the north’s brightest young brains when the semi-final of the Quiz Club general knowledge championship for prep schools took place at The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL). Teams of four (one from each year group in key stage 2) from six schools fielded questions on topics ranging from art to astronomy, music to mythology and much in between. In a high-tech format which relayed the answers from the children’s touchpads directly to the big screen, the teams had just 30 seconds to submit their answers. The atmosphere was tense as the lead yo-yoed between the different schools. After 30 questions, GSAL Junior School were in front, with ten final bonus questions to come. GSAL held their lead until the final question, when Derby High School’s superior knowledge of facts about Neptune saw them leapfrog into first place with 1845 points to GSAL’s 1825. Quizmaster Simon Blair, known to TV viewers for Channel 4’s Child Genius programme, said: “The questions are tough at the semi-final level of this national competition. It was a high standard here today and the pupils showed great teamwork. They were not guessing, they knew the answers and some of the audience didn’t!” Milan Singh, year 6, is a veteran of the quiz, having represented GSAL Junior School for the past three years. He said: “It was better this year, I knew more! It was a high standard and annoying to be pipped at the last question. It’s a nervous wait now to see whether we get through to the final.” The national final is on 17 June at Dulwich College. The semi-final winners Derby High School primary department progress, but GSAL Junior School’s team of Eva Prenowitz, year 3, Yuvraj Narang, year 4, Oliver Harper, year 5 and Milan can only cross their fingers and hope to qualify as one of the highest scoring runners up. General Primary
