The only local interschool competition that gives children who’ve always loved to read, a chance to display their knowledge and win prizes for it!

A record twenty-nine teams of students and two teams of staff from Tyne and Wear and Northumberland took part in this year’s Mini Lit Quiz, which is written and produced ‘in house.’ Our Quiz is modelled on the Kids Lit Quiz (UK) with both individual and team prizes, but has five rounds instead of ten and its own unique style. Each round of ten questions follows a particular literary theme but, unlike the KLQ, there is also a Pictionary round featuring picture clues and between-round elimination competitions for cash prizes.

Chantry B and Richard Coates A took an early lead after opting to play their Jokers in the first round, which featured beasts – mini and not-so mini. However, Dr Thomlinson’s C got the highest score and, later on, must have bitterly regretted not playing their Joker to double it.

Most teams did very well in the next round, which was all about threes. Chantry B maintained their early lead but Marden Bridge B snatched the highest scoring round by just half a point. If Chantry B had played their Joker on this round, it might have clinched the competition for them. Chantry A pushed Richard Coates A into third place.

The Pictionary round has always proved immensely popular and no fewer than nineteen of the thirty one teams competing played their Joker. Unsurprisingly, this really shook things up! Five teams achieved perfect scores on this round but only Gosforth Central A and Newminster A correctly predicted their strengths and risked their Jokers in what would become a decisive move for one of them….

Newminster A and D shot from nowhere into the first two places, toppling Chantry A and, for the rest of the competition, the placings remained the same.

 

Round 4 on transport, featuring several titles published within the last year, proved surprisingly challenging for many – but not for Newminster! Newminster A and C tied for highest score, beating Newminster D by half a point and the C team won this round.

The final round on fictional detectives completely floored many teams but Newminster students continued performing steadily and Newminster B took this round unchallenged.

Newminster A won the competition for the very first time and with the highest score ever achieved in this Quiz – 50 out of a possible 60 points – but nearly every school had at least one team in the top ten positions, which shows how closely matched they were.

Millie Horrie in Y8 deserves a special mention for rescuing Newminster D, who found themselves at half strength on the day. She and a volunteer from Marden Bridge helped take Newminster D to….. second place! Never were prizes better deserved!

The staff teams, including our own Mrs Shelley, played strongly but Staff B won by a narrow margin – probably owing to their secret weapon, otherwise known as a librarian – and came fourth overall! Well done to them!

Teams that win the top three paces aren’t eligible for a round prize, so the final results are as follows:

First	Newminster A		Round 1	Dr Thomlinson’s C
Second	Newminster D		Round 2	Marden Bridge B
Third	Chantry B		Round 3	St Thomas More B/Gosforth Central A
			Round 4	Newminster C
			Round 5	Newminster B

As you can see, all four Newminster teams won prizes – it was quite an afternoon – so fingers crossed for the bigger competition in November!

A big THANK YOU goes to Ellen Davison and Sophie Bell in Y8 who worked tirelessly, keeping the markers, adjudicator and data team supplied with answer sheets, taking photos and making sure they were always in the right place at the right time.

Thank you also to our student marshals, who waited patiently in the drizzle for half an hour to welcome our visitors and ensure that none of them got lost! You are a great team!