Rydal Penrhos sent two teams to the regional heats of a national competition to promote reading.
The National Literacy Trust has organised its first National Reading Quiz and regional heats have been taking place over the whole of the UK during this week. Rydal Penrhos entered two of the more than 500 teams who lent their support to the initiative across the country, which consisted of pupils from Years 5-8.
They were up against some stiff competition with many teams containing only Years 7-9 from Welsh High Schools. Teaching staff decided to combine year groups in order for older pupils to gain vital experience leading a team and because younger pupils always enjoy the exhilaration of working alongside older role models.
One of the school’s heads, Mrs Lucy Davies, gave us a brilliant account of what transpired throughout what turned out to be a testing but hugely beneficial experience for those taking part.
“It was a very long competition with ten rounds over three hours.
Team 1 chose to play their joker on round 4, ‘Books on Screen’ and there were some very challenging questions. We had hoped for ‘Harry Potter’ but instead were faced with far less famous titles such as, ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’ by Patrick Ness.
Team 2 played their joker on round 8, ‘Blast from the Past’ which was advertised as questions related to books read in early childhood. They did well considering that this round contained quotations from books such as Mary Norton’s ‘The Borrowers’ which is certainly quite challenging as an early childhood read!
There were also rounds on graphic novels, partnerships in books and myths and legends, as well as an anagram round and one with charades.
Our young readers worked brilliantly as two separate teams and it was fun to take part online where we could see the other teams also trying to work things out.
Our teams found it difficult and weren’t surprised when they were not announced in the top three. Nevertheless, they have learnt a lot about new books and are up for the challenge again next year…they profess to being enthused to go home and start reading more books straight away.
Many of the titles they heard about today have only been published in the past five years; we have been able to re-stock our senior and prep libraries with many of these books recently thanks to generous donations from the Rydal Penrhos Society and the family of Peter Watkinson.
We are always willing to accept books in good condition that our pupils have read and enjoyed, do think of donating books that you no longer need to school; this means they can be enjoyed over and over again.”
Well done to our brilliant reading teams:
Team 1:
- Year 5 – Oscar
- Year 6 – Amelie
- Year 7 – Cammie
- Year 8 – Ellis (captain)
- Year 8 – Keira
Team 2:
- Year 5 – Ella P
- Year 6 – Harry
- Year 7 – Lucy
- Year 8 – Chloe (captain)
- Year 8 – Finlay
_____________________________________
Anyone wishing to enquire about Rydal Penrhos School can do so by calling 01492 530155, email admissions@rydalpenrhos.com or register your interest online here: https://rydalpenrhos.com/admissions/apply-now.
