A team of students from Canberra Grammar School have taken home first prize in an international literary competition.
The Canberra Grammar School team, made up of five students in years six, seven and eight, took out the top spot in the world final of Kids’ Lit Quiz (KLQ) in Auckland, New Zealand on 4 July. The team was made up of year eight students Jordan Iglesias and Gabriel Thomson, year seven student Shaan Wing, year six student Evelyn Van Wijk and coaches Caroline Docker and Terri Robbs.
Coach Caroline Docker says the KLQ brings an “amazing” opportunity to students in Australia.
“Australian teams entered the competition for the first time in 2012, and Canberra Grammar School has been the national champion for five out of [the past] seven years,” she says.
KLQ, described as ‘the sport of reading’, is an annual competition for students aged 10-13. Teams compete in regional heats, with the winner progressing to the national final. The national champions then compete in the world final, against teams from Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the UK and the USA.
Teams are required to answer questions about literature in various categories in a quiz setting, with teams buzzing in when they know an answer.
Coach Terri Robb says the competition offers contestants the chance to read, as well as the chance to mix with students from other schools and countries who are equally as passionate about books and reading.
“CGS has a long and successful history in KLQ. The key ingredient to being a successful KLQ team member is a passion for reading across all genres and text types,” Ms Robb says.
“Team members also attend two formal training sessions each week to help them learn to work together as a team and to practise using buzzers. For parents, all they need to do is to encourage their children’s love of reading.”
The team from CGS came in ahead of Raffles Girls’ School in Singapore in second place, and Oxford High School in the UK in third place. In 2019, KLQ‘s world final will be held in Singapore, with teams from Thailand and Nigeria set to join the competition for the first time.
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