The three winners of the 2015 English Olympiad were announced last week at a prize-giving ceremony in the Guy Butler theatre on the last day of the National Schools Festival.
The three winners of the 2015 English Olympiad were announced last week at a prize-giving ceremony in the Guy Butler theatre on the last day of the National Schools Festival.
First was Hannah Fagan from Camps Bay High School, second Jessica Craven from Northcliff High School and third, Tamsin Metelerkamp from Rustenburg High School for Girls.
The Grahamstown Foundation and the South African Council of English Education (SACEE) also announced the names of the entire Top 100 Olympiad winners at the same event.
Three students from the same school – Maru-A-Pula School in Gaborone, Botswana – were amongst the top 15.
The English Olympiad, sponsored by De Beers, is an annual English competition that, this year, drew more than 8000 Home Language and First Additional Language (FAL) entries from 400 schools throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique.
De Beers has been closely associated with the English Olympiad since 1985.
On 3 March this year, entrants for the Olympiad from Grades 10 to 12, wrote the three-hour examination.
The theme was “Stories and Language of Mzansi” and drew on the works of a wide range of South African writers.
Colleen Callahan, the De Beers English Olympiad Chief Examiner for 2015, said that, “the transformation element of the title focused on both the transformation of various characters as well as transformation of genre from oral tradition to the short story".
Dr Diana Ayliff, Academic Coordinator, commented that, “Our aim in the De Beers English Olympiad examination is to stretch candidates’ minds by introducing them to texts that they would not usually read at school.
The answers from the top candidates were insightful and showed flashes of vision and awareness that made them outstanding".
De Beers Consolidated Mines was represented at the ceremony by Mr Tsepo Monaledi, who said, “The English Olympiad excites a great deal of interest amongst schools and learners to excel and test themselves and liberate their own potential and engage confidentially in our continent and with the world, in this fast-evolving information age".
The top three candidates receive R30 000, R28 000 and R25 500 respectively.
The Top 15 candidates are invited to attend the National Schools Festival in Grahamstown free of charge.
Fourth to 20th places get cash, books and book vouchers.
The Top 50 candidates receive free tuition scholarships for their first year of study at Rhodes University, as long as they pass matric and subject to meeting the university’s entry requirements.
Everyone who completes the paper sufficiently well get a certificate that gives a classified evaluation ranging from 'participation' to 'gold'.
