De Putron Challenge crowns its 2020 winners

Tuesday 15 December 2020

The 2020 De Putron Challenge finished this week, with students from Guernsey’s La Mare De Carteret High School among the winners.

The annual quiz, supported by the Ana Leaf Foundation, has given years 6 and 8 students across the Channel Islands a chance to compete with one another since 2007.

This year’s theme was 'Dear Future’, and participants were made to consider some of the issues they'll be facing later on in life. Due to the pandemic, the Challenge was forced to adopt an online format this year, and the challenges themselves reflected this focus on technology.

“We wanted to continue with the event, despite the challenging year we’ve all faced,” explained Haylee de Putron, founder of the Challenge and trustee of the Ana Leaf Foundation.

“Making the challenge virtual meant more students could take part, it offered more flexibility to the schools, and if schools had to close due to the virus, they could still complete the challenges.”

With the De Putron Challenge 2020 over, we'd like to thank everyone for taking part & making this year a memorable one despite changing the format to ensure schools could take part safely & still have fun while learning. Take a look at the highlights! #DePutronChallenge pic.twitter.com/AfbJnop9t1

— De Putron Challenge (@DePChallenge) December 11, 2020

The first challenge was the ‘Power of Knowledge’ quiz on 16 November. Participants used the platform Kahoot to answer multiple choice questions on Geography, Science, and the Environment.

After a total of 30 questions, St John’s School in Jersey came first among the Year 6 teams, and Victoria College won in the Year 8 category.

The second challenge, 'The Rise of the Robots', was designed by Colin King from Jersey Coders, who judged the final entries. Teams explored how the popular video game Bloons Tower Defence was made, and used what they learned to try and code their own game.

Their efforts were judged based on the progress they’d made, the quality of the game, how optimised the code was, and for good use of maths and problem-solving skills.

In this challenge Year 6 pupils from St John emerged victorious, and in Year 8 St Michael’s Prep won for their code.

Pictured: Guernsey winners from the 2019 De Putron Challenge

“Our idea was to use a 360 camera to track animal activity to help save endangered species,” said one team member.

“We loved making the game with the team and it was really fun to work together.”

The final challenge, ‘Reinventing the Wheel’, asked students to consider an issue that is affecting, or could affect, the Channel Islands, and pitch a potential solution to two judges.

Samarés Primary School in Jersey won the Year 6 bracket, but the Year 8 team from La Mare de Carteret scored Guernsey its only win from the competition, narrowly beating Les Beaucamps.

“We’re so pleased with the success of this year’s De Putron Challenge,” said Mrs de Putron.

“Even though we couldn’t meet together physically this year, it was great to see the photos and videos of the schools taking part."

“We received really positive feedback from the schools, and many said their students enjoyed the challenges. It’s so important to celebrate young people’s intelligence, and we’re so grateful we could go ahead with the challenge.”

Winners and runners up for the second and third challenges will receive a cash prize for their schools. Schools that took part in all three will be awarded a book voucher.

Pictured top: the St Michael's Preparatory School team, hard at work on their winning entry for the 'Rise of the Robots' challenge.