During Term 2, 17 Year 5 students committed to taking part in Readers’ Cup. In teams of five or six, they studied five books in preparation for an extensive quiz. Students also selected one of these books as the focus for a short creative presentation. Collaborating during recess and lunch, students were supported in this process by Laura Beaumont, Marissa Saville and me.
At our intra-school event, students began by sharing their creative presentations. We thank our judges — Andy Prideaux, Ben Green and Andrew Sulzberger — for their time and expertise. With only half a point separating the creative performances, the pressure was on for the quiz round. It remained extremely close, with the winning team made up of Sophie Lim, Estelle van der Aa, Mia d’Emden, Audrey Tso, and Suvani Somarathna.
The team continued to study and polish their presentation, ready to represent the College at the Readers’ Cup Regional Final, held on the evening of Thursday 29 May at Hagley Farm School. In addition, the team was required to study an extra book in just 10 days, as the regional final included an additional creative challenge based on this book. When one of the original team members became too unwell to attend, Percy Calvert stepped up from another team at the last minute to take their place.
After a long evening of watching 18 competing school teams perform their presentations and answering an entirely new set of even harder quiz questions, our Scotch Oakburn College team was thrilled to learn they had placed second overall.
Congratulations to all students who embraced this opportunity and challenged themselves!
Naomi O’Loughlin
Head of Extension & Enrichment Elphin
