The de Putron Challenge inter-island final has reached its exciting conclusion with Victoria College Preparatory School winning the year six final and Blanchelande College taking home the year eight trophy.
The de Putron Challenge aims to showcase the brightest young minds in Guernsey and Jersey. The Challenge brings together year six and year eight pupils to test their general knowledge, maths and creative thinking skills in two quiz competitions – one in each island. The winning schools then go on to face off in the inter-island final.
This year the Jersey schools travelled over to Guernsey to compete against their Guernsey counterparts. The final was held at Les Cotils, hosted by quizmaster John Fernandez from BBC Guernsey.
In the year six final Melrose, the Guernsey schools’ representative, raced into an early lead during the first buzzer round. Victoria College Preparatory School came back strongly though, with a great performance in the maths round helping them make up ground. The two teams went into the final round level on points, but it was Victoria College that ended the final as the winners by just three points.

Later in the day, St Michael’s Preparatory School and Blanchelande went head-to-head in the year eight final. In contrast to the earlier final, the scores were neck and neck throughout. Blanchelande took a slender one-point lead into the final round and held on to their advantage to be crowned champions. It was a hard challenge and both teams competed valiantly, but Blanchelande just gained an edge with some snappy science answers to win overall with 24 points to St Michael’s 21 points.
Hayley de Putron, a Trustee of the Ana Leaf Foundation and founder of the de Putron Challenge, said: “Congratulations to Victoria College Preparatory School and Blanchelande for winning the inter-island final in their respective year groups. All four teams who competed today performed to an extremely high standard, and they should all be full of pride. Thank you to everyone who was involved in another terrific de Putron Challenge!”
Main picture: The team from Victoria College Preparatory School (left to right – Jack Hewgill, Jimmy Mackintosh and William Cavendish)