Tuesday, February 24, 2015

South African News

On Saturday, a team from Manor Gardens Primary School in Durban won the 2015 South African Kids' Lit Quiz decisively and, with the school's strong pedigree in the Kids' Lit Quiz, appear to be early favourites for the world title.

In 2011, a Manor Gardens team won the world title by the biggest margin in Kids' Lit Quiz's 24 year history and, in 2015, two teams from the school competed at the National Final. Clearly a school with a strong commitment to literacy, Manor Gardens kids have also provided many of the book reviews for Reading for Australia - have a look at the left sidebar for all books recommended by keen readers.


The 2015 South African team from Manor Gardens Primary School

Best of all, Manor Gardens is a state school, showing that literary excellence as well as success at the Kids' Lit Quiz is not only for "rich kids" from private schools. As South African national coordinator, Marj Brown says,

“The quiz has state and independent schools. The difference between these can sometimes be devastating: some schools don’t even have libraries. But as a state school, Manor Gardens’ achievement shows that wonderful things can come from well run state schools.”


There is a terrific article by Nosipho Nmgoma in Durban's Daily News on the Manor Gardens team. You can read it here. Congratulations to Isobel, the 2015 national team and the entire Manor Gardens school community!

More on South Africa in these posts:

Team South Africa 2014 (including a review of the 2014 Phendulani Quiz)
South Africa 2013 by Marj Brown
Africa!
There and Back Again (report on the 2013 World Final in Durban)
The Big Five
Prisoner 44664: master of his fate, captain of his soul

It's Australia's turn next - starting with the Ipswich heat on 5 March and concluding with the National Final on 14 March in Sydney. Let's find our best readers to take on the South African champs!

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