There are more questions than answers, sang Johnny Nash. All of which rather suggests he was a better singer than he was quiz setter. We, on the other hand, might not be able to turn our tonsils to gently lilting reggae, but we sure know how to lay down a quiz.
Here is your starter for ten and, please, no conferring:
1.The word ‘school’ is derived from the Latin ‘schola’, which translates as:
a) Intermission of work, leisure for learning
b) Common ground in knowledge
c) Centre for teaching, learning in society
2.Which independent school in the UK has the most expensive day fees?
a) Badminton School
b) Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
c) Wycombe Abbey School
3.Which independent schools recently announced plans to merge?
a) Westminster School and St Paul’s School
b) The Edinburgh Academy and Stewart’s Melville College
c) Durham School and The Chorister School
4.The percentage of school age children in the UK who attend independent schools is:
a) 6.5%
b) 8.5%
c) 10.5%
5.The Girls Schools’ Association was formed in what year?
a) 1964
b) 1974
c) 1984
6.Which institution was recently named the Sunday Times’ independent secondary school of the decade?
a) Brighton College
b) Cheltenham Ladies’ College
c) Royal Grammar School, Newcastle
7.Which of the following historic boys’ schools has not become coeducational?
a) Westminster
b) Charterhouse
c) Winchester
8.Who is chair of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference?
a) Millicent Fritton
b) Sally-Anne Huang
c) Shaun Fenton
9.Which former party leader attended Castle House School, an independent prep in Shropshire?
a) Tony Blair
b) William Hague
c) Jeremy Corbyn
10.Which of the following is not an independent school in the UK?
a) Myddelton College
b) Dotheboys Hall
c) Lady Barn House School
11.What is the name of the unlikely schoolmaster in Evelyn Waugh’s classic tale of boarding school, Decline and Fall?
a) Paul Pennyfeather
b) Timothy Tanyerhide
c) Andrew Andrews
12.In the novel Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes, at which institution is Tom a pupil?
a) Eton
b) Harrow
c) Rugby
13.Partly filmed in the former Royal Masonic School for Boys, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life features a teacher, Humphrey Williams (John Cleese), angrily telling a school assembly that “Two boys have been found…
a) “… hanging from the gatehouse clock like a pair of gormless Harold Lloyds”
b) “… rubbing linseed oil into the school cormorant”
c) “… guilty of shamelessly purloining the skin from the headmaster’s rice pudding”
14.And finally, please solve three anagrams of historic UK independent schools:
a) Check holstering shooters
b) Boer loch noshers
c) Am hopping slouch
Here come the answers – no peeking!
Thank you for your ongoing support. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at IE.
