Schoolchildren from Preston won a national TV quiz but they couldn’t breathe a word.
It’s hard to tell which task was the most challenging – winning a television quiz show to find Britain’s brightest children or keeping the result secret for more than three months.
Whichever it was, the youngsters from St Pius X School in Preston acquitted themselves brilliantly on both counts and appeared to take it all in their stride.
In fact, the most nervous person on the CBBC set of Top Class was probably Year 6 teacher Christine Davies. Host Susan Calman put Mrs Davies in the spotlight as the designated teacher who had to answer her own set of questions. It was tough. ‘Yes, it was pretty nerve-racking - what is popular culture to them wasn’t necessarily popular culture to me so I did struggle,’ she laughed.
However, it was more straightforward for the youngsters - Faris Patel, Maggie Conlon, Ameya Sonwalkar, Hasan Afzal and Amaani Adam – who beat a team from Dorset by 11 points.
Although the final had been recorded in Glasgow in May, it has only just been broadcast. ‘We had an assembly and we told everyone that they had to keep it quiet,’ said Mrs Davies. ‘And definitely nothing on social media. It seemed to work.’
On the afternoon of the broadcast, the school hall was packed with pupils to watch the victorious St Pius team collect the winner’s trophy. A memorable day was topped off when one of the parents arrived with a special celebration cake depicting the team members.
‘The children really enjoyed taking part,’ said Mrs Davies, who is also a senior team leader at the school. ‘There were no hours of preparation and revision or a boot camp. The children just concentrated on subjects that interested them.’
Now the school is waiting to hear if it can defend their trophy – although Mrs Davies is probably hoping for a break from questions about 21st century pop!w
