Islands to go head-to-head for De Putron Challenge

Sunday 15 October 2017

The De Putron Challenge is returning to Jersey on 16 November with an "around the world" theme and a record number of participating schools with 31 in Jersey and 21 in Guernsey.

The event showcasing the Channel Islands' brightest young minds will culminate in an inter-island face-off on 23 November at the Grand Hotel.

The 11th Challenge event will feature three separate contests for different school year groups, Year 6, Year 8 and Post-16. They will pit their wits against each other and answer questions on topics ranging from sport to science and art to history.

Channel Television presenter John Fernandez will once again take to the stage as this year’s quizmaster to question the students in a similar format to that of the infamous University Challenge. In line with this year’s theme, questions will feature topics from around the world in art, sport, history, science and music.

As well as the more conventional general knowledge rounds, the students will also face a picture and video round designed for teammates to work together to come up with the answers.

This year a technology round is being trialled at the Guernsey Post-16 event. This new team-based round, designed by the Digital Greenhouse, will challenge teams to write a computer coding programme to safely navigate a Lego EV3 robot through a maze using Lego’s own programming tools and an inbuilt Gyro sensor.  The fastest and most accurate robot to complete the course wins valuable points for its team.

The inter-island final will see the winning teams from the Year 6, Year 8 and Post-16 competition from each island go on to compete against one another on Thursday 23 November at the Grand Hotel in Jersey for a chance to win the even more prestigious Inter-Island titles.

Last year’s De Putron Challenge saw Victoria College (pictured) emerge victorious over Hautlieu School, The Ladies’ College and Elizabeth College in the post-16 inter-island final.  Jersey’s De La Salle Primary missed out to Castel Primary School in the inter-island Year 6 challenge by just one point and Elizabeth College won the Year 8 inter-island title beating Jersey College for Girls also by just one point.

Hayley de Putron, a trustee of the Ana Leaf Foundation and founder of the De Putron Challenge, said she is excited ahead of this year’s competition and is delighted with its growing popularity. “The principal aim of the De Putron Challenge is to engage with the island’s youth in a way that is both educational and collaborative. We want to show students that academic excellence is something that should be celebrated at any age and it is great to see that each year more and more Channel Island schools sign up to compete. We are constantly looking at ways to develop the competition to keep it fresh. Introducing a computer programming round for this year’s Guernsey Post 16 age group not only introduces another team element to the rounds but also combines mathematical prowess with the students IT ability.

“If successful we will endeavour to roll this out at the Jersey Post 16 event next year and possibly to the younger age groups in coming years.”

Spectators, families and friends of the schools are encouraged to come along to cheer on the teams. The inter-island final will also be live streamed for those who are unable to attend on Thursday 23 November.