Kingswood College matric pupil, Joshua Smuts, has been placed in the top 50 for this year's De Beers English Olympiad. There were more than 7 300 entrants from 350 different schools for the Olympiad this year and Joshua is thrilled with his achievement, which wins him a year of free tuition at Rhodes University.
Kingswood College matric pupil, Joshua Smuts, has been placed in the top 50 for this year's De Beers English Olympiad. There were more than 7 300 entrants from 350 different schools for the Olympiad this year and Joshua is thrilled with his achievement, which wins him a year of free tuition at Rhodes University.
The Olympiad, now in its 36th year, is an annual three-hour-long examination for Grade 10-12 pupils from South Africa and neighbouring countries, which tests their English language interpretation and writing skills.
The theme for this year’s examination was When Urban meets Rural and it drew on poetry from an anthology entitled Small Town, Big Voice. The anthology featured poems from South African poets, Chris Mann, Harry Owen and Don Maclennan, who have all been based in Grahamstown.
Kingswood English teacher, Trudi Adendorff, was delighted with Joshua's achievement, saying, Joshua set himself the task of internalising the poetry provided in the anthology and developing his own personal voice in response to it. The exam was written in March. Joshua will have to wait until the Olympiad prize-giving ceremony on 12 July to hear where in the top 50 he featured. The top three will be treated to a literary tour in England later in the year.
Joshua planned to study English and Film Studies at UCT next year, but may now take up his prize at Rhodes.
I've lived in Grahamstown all my life, and so I really enjoyed interpreting the work of Grahamstown poets in the Olympiad, and responding creatively without the usual restrictions of exam questions, he said.
Joshua is an all-rounder, playing the trombone in the Kingswood College Concert Band and Jazz Band and playing hockey for the Kingswood 1st XI.
