AT St Francis Xavier School at Runaway Bay, the Year 5 Red students were so inspired by the SBS spelling program Hotspell, they decided to run their own in-school competition.
After choosing the catchy title “So You Think You Can Spell” they set about organising the whole-school event.
During class discussions different groups were allocated particular tasks, including advertising, logos, newsletter, lists, prizes, certificates, roles and venue preparation.
The spelling competition was open to Years 1-7 students, who all worked together to make the event run smoothly.
Each individual class completed basic spelling testing to determine the top two spellers who then competed in a semi-final against other competitors from the same year level.
There they faced three rounds of spelling, “ready, set, spell” – “speed spell” and “hands up”.
After three rounds of oral spelling the three finalists from each year level were put through to the grand-final and winners were presented with certificates for their efforts.
The children of 5 Red conducted both the semi-finals and grand final very professionally and attracted a lot of publicity and enthusiasm for spelling within the school.
The school is hoping that the spelling competition will be an annual event at the school.
