ACG Parnell College fielded four teams for the online event (two Varsity, one Junior Varsity and one Middle School), each supported by a member of the school’s Humanities and History faculty. In addition to the Junior Varsity squad’s outstanding success, the Middle School team also reached the semi-finals and have qualified for the History Olympiad later this year.

Year 11 Junior Varsity Champions (Luke Kowalski, Daniel Young, Gabby Styris and Brian Zhao) have provided a behind-the-scenes look at this exciting event.

“The History Bowl is a quiz competition held around the world. This year it was via Zoom because of COVID-19. Every match in the competition comprised of four rounds, where each team answered a series of diverse history questions to secure a place in the quarterfinals.

“For three of the rounds, we answered questions where the moderator would describe a historical event, place or person. The clues would get easier as the question continued, and both teams could buzz in to answer at any point. In the most exciting rounds, we answered quick-fire questions on weirdly specific categories. There were always three categories to choose from, but the opposing team were often allowed to select their topic first, so we were sometimes left with challenging options.

“There were some very interesting categories that we did surprisingly well in, like candle making, English-Portuguese relations and obsolete flags. It’s safe to say we’ve added value to our bank of general knowledge.

“On the first day of the competition, our Junior Varsity team competed in five matches. Our competitors were from across the Asia Pacific, including Thailand, Australia and Taiwan. We won the quarterfinals, qualifying for the semi-finals on the second day, and were eventually crowned champions in our division after our strong performance in the final against the German International School.

“We’d like to thank the Humanities department, who helped and supported us throughout the entire process. Our history teachers Mrs Montgomerie, Miss Fuke, Mr Maurer and Mr Yeo were especially encouraging and watched all of our matches throughout the two-day competition. It was loads of fun, and a huge congratulations to all the other ACG teams on their hard work and perseverance.”

For additional profiles and articles on the success of our students’ at ACG Parnell College, please visit the following: Ambassador’s trophy win for Colden Sapir and Exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts