2024 High School Lit Quiz

On August 28, our school participated in the annual literature competition called High School Lit Quiz, organised by the Waikato Children’s Literature Association. This event celebrates reading and recognises enthusiastic readers from all over Waikato. Our school was one of 10 schools that participated in the competition, with our two teams competing against 20 others. The competition tested their knowledge of NZ Book Awards for Children and YA, book series, classics, futuristic, dystopian and other fiction, latest bestsellers, graphic novels, books made into movies, authors, quotes from well-known books, and mythology.

Our girls demonstrated excellent knowledge in most categories, and even won the Books to Screen round, with team members Talia Davidson, Sophie Mackie, Julia Zhou, and Jasper Chan. Our Y9s, comprising Isabella Powell, Greta Barbosa, Carmen Reymer, and Jaime O’Carroll, showed equal knowledge across all categories. A memorable moment for both teams was when Greta Barbosa won a small cash award for being the quickest of 88 students to guess a book in one of the special challenges between the rounds. Competing among so many avid readers was challenging, as just a few points less could make a significant difference when aiming for a top 3 placement. Ultimately, our teams secured 8th and shared 9th place and were delighted to participate in this event. Enriched by this year’s experience, we are eager to take on the challenge again next year.

New Zealand School Library Week

Our library was bustling with activity during New Zealand School Library Week (August 12-16). We joined numerous other school libraries throughout New Zealand to highlight the wonderful things happening in libraries. We organised a bookmark competition to engage our students, with ten students showcasing their outstanding creativity by creating exquisite bookmarks. These were then scanned, laminated, and given to students who borrowed books during the week.

Additionally, we hosted a Pixelate Kahoot Quiz where students guessed the books from pixelated images of selected book covers. We also had a book club led by two student librarians, Hayley Penn and Sarina Reymer, who shared their book knowledge and love of books with other reading enthusiasts. To challenge the notion of judging books by their covers, we displayed a selection of amazing reads, both new and popular, with all books wrapped to prevent the covers from influencing choices. Instead, students relied on the book blurbs printed on the back to make their selections.