Students ‘Reach for the Top’ at national competition held in Moncton
Twenty-three teams from Canadian schools shared their random knowledge at Reach for the Top Nationals held in Moncton.
They got together at Bernice MacNaughton High and Wabanaki Schools, who were the junior and senior hosts for the 2026 competition.
Coach for the BMHS team, Natasha Leblanc, says the process of hosting the event began a few years ago when the Reach for the Top organization considered holding the nationals competition in other parts of the country.
Leblanc was asked if an East Coast school would be interested in hosting, and the rest is history.
“Teams started rolling in on Friday, May 29, and we had 23 teams between the senior national finals and junior national finals. That was approximately 150 players and coaches. We competed all day Saturday and all day Sunday, and the event wrapped up with the national finals at 3 p.m yesterday (May 31) at Bernice McNaughton High School,” Leblanc explained.
The winning team for 2026 was the University of Toronto Schools, but Leblanc says it was an incredibly close game, after squeaking out a win in the end against Renert from Alberta.
Teams came from as far away as British Columbia and represented public schools and private schools. There were competitors as young as 11.
If you’re not familiar with Reach for the Top, you can look back decades to a television show that was broadcast on CBC. Alex Trebek was a host at one point.
“It has four team members from one high school being pitted against four team members from another high school, and questions are asked by a quiz master or a host. It’s about 90 questions, and they get them done in about 45 minutes or sooner, depending on the speed of the quiz master and the ranking of the team,” Leblanc explained.
Topics range from Pokémon to Physics, World Politics, Science, Biology, and basically anything and everything. Students are either specialists and have a niche piece of knowledge, or they’re generalists, and get together and study.
“It is a wonderful club and activity that takes place in all different forms, and they’re in schools in New Brunswick and all across Canada,” Leblanc added.
