Otonga Road Primary School students who won the newsteam compitition. l-r Erin Chand, 11, Skye du Plessis, 11, Ciara Griffiths, 10, Jenna Hastings, 11, Photo/Ben Fraser
Otonga Road Primary School students who won the newsteam compitition. l-r Erin Chand, 11, Skye du Plessis, 11, Ciara Griffiths, 10, Jenna Hastings, 11, Photo/Ben Fraser
Rotorua pupils proudly showcased their speed and accuracy finding information at the 2015 Newsteam competition.
A record 52 teams from local primary and intermediate schools filled the Sportsdrome on Wednesday night to take part in the competition.
Running for more than two decades, Newsteam involves groups of two scouring sections of the Rotorua Daily Post in search of the answers to 65 questions.
Otonga Rd Primary School team A reigned supreme in the Year 5 and 6 A pool, beating the second-equal teams, Lynmore B, Otonga Rd B and Westbrook B, by five points.
Otonga Rd Primary School pupils Erin Chand, Jenna Hastings, Skye Du Plessis, all 11, and Ciara Griffiths, 10, agreed the competition was "awesome".
"We were so surprised when we won because we were still finding answers right down to the last second," Erin said.
"It was also really easy to get distracted because we'd start reading an interesting article and forget that we had to find an answer to the question," Jenna said.
Their school's Newsteam coach Carol McKenzie said the pupils were excited to enter the competition.
"Many of the pupils didn't realise how much information they could find in their local newspaper.
"If we didn't have this competition, the pupils would have never delved so deeply into the newspaper and discovered what types of information they could find in there."
There were four categories, Year 5 and 6 A, Year 5 and 6 B, Year 5 and 6 C and Year 7 and 8.
Teams from Glenholme Primary School took out first place in the B category, followed by Rotokawa School.
From left, Erin Chand, 11, Skye du Plessis, 11, Ciara Griffiths, 10, Jenna Hastings, 11. Photo/Ben Fraser
St Michael's Catholic Primary School, Waikite Valley School and Kaharoa Primary School placed first, second and third respectively in the C category.
John Paul College teams came first and second in the Year 7 and 8 section.
Students from Mokoia Intermediate School came third.
