Schools' Challenge
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Schools' Challenge is the national general knowledge competition for schools. It uses the same basic rules as University Challenge, although it is affiliated with neither the game nor the television show.
Schools' Challenge has two sections. The Senior Schools' Challenge is for students aged 13 and above (that is to say, Year 9 upwards). Each team comprises four members, two of which must be members of Years 9 or 10. The other two can be of any age. Junior Schools' Challenge is for students up to and including Year 8, or preparatory school pupils. 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, unlike its Senior counterpart.
The competition is divided this way because of the incongruence between the public school system and grammar or comprehensive schools. In some public school systems students attend a preparatory school until the age of 13, after which time they transfer to a public school. Schools Challenge has had to work around this so that no school has an unfair advantage in terms of age.
The competition is divided up into regions, much like Secondary School public speaking or debating competitions. Each region has a coordinator, who in turn answers to the national organizers.
[edit] Rules
The game is played to more or less the same rules as University Challenge, except as follows:
- 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 or music or rounds.
Interested schools may email the National Organizers at schoolschallenge@sims.abel.co.uk
