Schools Challenge is the national general knowledge competition for schools in the United Kingdom. It uses the same quiz bowl rules as University Challenge, although it is affiliated with neither the game nor the television show. Schools Challenge was founded by Colin Galloway in 1978, and is divided into Senior and Junior sections. Senior Schools Challenge is for students aged up to 18, with no lower age restriction. In practice the teams tend to draw on Form III to Upper VI. Each team comprises four members, two of whom must be no older than the normal age for a Form IV student student, or preparatory school pupils: in 2019, born on or after 1 September 2006. Again, there are four members in each team but there are no restrictions on the numbers of any students from a particular age group in this competition. The competition is divided this way because of the incongruence between the independent school system and grammar or comprehensive schools. In some independent school systems students attend a preparatory school until the age of 13, after which time they transfer to another school. Schools Challenge has had to work around this so that no school has an unfair advantage in terms of age. Both Senior and Junior competitions are divided into a maximum of 15 regions. Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales each comprise a separate region, though Northern Ireland currently does not participate in the Senior competition. Each region has a coordinator, the Regional Organiser, who in turn answers to the National Organisers. The competition starts with each respective region's tournament- the number of teams that participate in each region varies, with some regions larger/smaller than others Then, the 15 eventual regional winners play an inter-regional round- usually against the winners of a neighbouring region- the winners of which participate in the national finals to contest the Schools' Challenge shield. The runners-up of the School Challenge competition also receive a smaller shield. Teams who lose in the first round of the national final contest enter the repechage contest for the Schools' Challenge Plate. Finals are contested in a single day, normally the last Sunday in April for the Senior competition and the third or fourth Sunday in June for the Junior competition, at a central venue. The most successful team in the competition's history are Westminster School, who won each year from 2005-2009, in 2016, 2018 and 2020. In addition, they were beaten finalists in 2004 and 2011, semi-finalists in 2010, and won the Plate competition in 2015. The only team to have won the Senior and Junior competitions in the same season is The Perse School, Cambridge. Other consistently successful teams in both Junior and Senior competitions are The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, Hereford Cathedral School, King Edward's School, Birmingham, Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Nottingham High School and Calday Grange Grammar School; in the Junior competition only, Dulwich Prep London However, the quality of schools can be changeable and it is not uncommon to see a school do well in the competition maybe even for the first time in many years. So far, the only all-female teams ever to qualify for the Senior National Finals have been from Bournemouth School for Girls. BSG’s 2019 team is to date the most successful all girls’ team in the Senior competition’s history, having beaten King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford to win the Plate Final. All-female teams have been rather more successful in the Junior competition: King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham, Withington Girls' School, Chelmsford County High School for GirlsKesteven and Grantham Girls' School, Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, Sacred Heart Grammar School, Newry and Wakefield Girls' High School. King Edward VI High School for Girls has been the only all-female team to have won the Junior National Finals ; Chelmsford County High School for Girls were runners-up in 1993. The national competition is organised by Paul and Sue Sims, assisted by various regional coordinators.
Rules
The game is played to similar rules to the TV show University Challenge. Starter questions are asked to all contestants and the first to buzz must answer immediately. The team that correctly answers a buzzer question is then asked three 'bonus' questions which they may confer on and which may be passed to the other team. The main differences between Schools Challenge and University Challenge are:
No points are deducted for incorrectly interrupting a starter question on the buzzer.
Bonus questions are worth 10 points each and are passed across to the other team if answered incorrectly.
A team answering the starter and all three subsequent bonuses correctly gains an extra bonus of 10 points: thus 50 points are available per round.
There are no picture rounds or music rounds at present.
The contestant who buzzes first must wait for the quiz master's signal that they should give their answer. Failure to comply with these regulations may leave the contestant's answer void.
Equipment
8-player lockout buzzers, common in quizzes of this type are used and are supplied by tournament organisers if a hosting school cannot supply the equipment. While tournament rules do not specify a manufacturer, the Jaser Quizmaster system is the de facto standard in many regions, although this is no longer being manufactured. An electronic scoreboard, which can be projected onto an IWB or screen has been used in a number of Regional Finals and National Finals in recent years.
Schools Challenge 2019-20
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic causing the closure of secondary schools in early 2020, the decision was made to conduct the remaining stages of the competition predominantly via the video app Zoom. However, the inter-regional rounds that were not completed before the closure of schools were conducted in an all-new 'pub-quiz' style, rather than on buzzers as is usual or on Zoom as the national rounds were played. The seven teams in the national finals were The Perse School, Calday Grange, Dollar Academy, Westminster School, King Edward VI Grammar School Chelmsford, and Warwick School, who would have hosted the competition. Due to one team dropping out, King Edward's School got a 'bye' to the semi-finals.
