Fairfield High School students Reuben, Toby and Elliot have made history by bringing home the WorldWise Quiz trophy by smashing all previous scores and astounding professors, in an accolade won by private schools in the past few decades.
The quiz at the University of Bristol, and organised by Bristol Geographical Association, saw Key Stage 4 students across the city compete in topics such as the naming of cities from photographs, plus the answering of wide ranging challenging questions on GCSE Geography content.
The WorldWise Quiz has been running for 40 years, building year on year in prestige, with an increasing number of young people taking part; so much so, that this year’s 17 teams pivoted to the Great Hall at the University of Bristol – a fitting location for a competition with such rich history.
Rounds consisted of the alphabet, aerial photos, sustainability, coasts, field course, OS mapping skills, cities and ‘mixed bag’ and, despite being extremely close at the half time break, the boys broke through, winning with four clear points.
“I was very excited to attend the WorldWise Quiz for the first time, and to leave with the trophy was a bonus!” said Reuben. “We hope Fairfield will defend the title in the future. We would like to thank the Bristol GA, the University of Bristol and our amazing Geography teachers at Fairfield!”
Sharing his favourite moment, Elliot recalls, “The maps round was the highlight of my night, as we got to compare maps of Blagdon Lake from 1800, 1900 and 2010, which I recently have cycled to from Bristol!”
Toby completes the trio’s elation, saying, “I was ecstatic with our score and I felt like we excelled in the coast round having studied it in Year 10 and having visited Exmouth beach on our field trip where we saw landforms come to life.”
Amy Hornsby, Geography Teacher at Fairfield, added, “I was thrilled and proud in equal measure at the achievement of our talented trio during this competition. This spectacular trophy is now safely in Fairfield hands until next year when we shall be defending our title. I would like to say a huge congratulations from all of the Fairfield family for this fantastic and richly deserved victory.”