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Anse Boileau pupil wins 1st National Spelling Bee Competition |05 June 2018

Chloe Antat, a P5 pupil from Anse Boileau school, is the grand winner of the 1st National Spelling Bee Competition organised on Sunday afternoon.

Chloe also received the prize for best speller.

The 1st runner up is Navin Volcère from Bel Eau primary school, the 2nd runner up is Ellie Loizeau while the 3rd runner up is Ruhi Sree Pandu Rangan both from the Independent School.

The winners received trophies, certificate, gift vouchers, books and other educational items.

The 1st national Spelling Bee Competition for P5 and P6 pupils aged between 9 and 12 years from both State and private schools in the country has been initiated by the Seychelles Centennial Women Lions Club in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development.

It was coordinated by Lion Brigitte Labonte, a senior official of the Ministry of Education. 

50 contestants -- boys and girls from both State and private schools -- took part in the competition. The 27 participating schools each sent two of their best contestants based on their own spelling competition selection process.

The schools were given two months to prepare for the competition which comprised memorising and practicing spelling words from a list of 500 words compiled by the Ministry of Education.

Elaine Larue, assessment development officer at the Ministry of Education, was the pronouncer for the competition and her role was to pronounce all the different words for the pupils to spell before the judges when one after the other they were called to stand up facing the judge.

Before the competition started she explained the rules of the competition and presented the panel of judges.

The competition comprised four rounds and the contestants were eliminated as they mis-spelled a word until only one was left.

Centennial Women Lions Club president, Karpagam Senthil, said the competition will from now on be an annual event supported by the Ministry of Education.

She explained that a ‘Spelling Bee’ is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words usually with varying degrees of difficulty.

The idea for such a competition is believed to have originated from the US and today ‘Spelling Bee’ events are held in primary schools around the world.

“The aim of such a spelling competition is not to get the pupils to compete against each other but to get them to put into practice what they have learnt about word formation rather than relying on memorising,” Mrs Senthil pointed out.

She added that it also aims to help young pupils develop their spelling skills, vocabulary and groom them to speak and express themselves in public.

Expressing her appreciation at the high turnout of officials from the department of education, parents, teachers and other interested individuals, Mrs Senthil said “this shows your commitment in encouraging our children to move on to the next level”.

Cyril Pillay, the director general for Early Childhood and Primary Education, launched the competition which was held at the ICCS.

On behalf the Ministry of Education, he thanked the Centennial Women Lions Club for this great initiative.

“We are happy and proud to be a major partner and we are indeed encouraged by such an initiative,” he said.

He also thanked all the schools which have responded positively to the competition and worked hard to prepare the pupils as well as parents and the different sponsors for their contributions and for supporting the competition.

“Spelling Bee competitions are conducted in many countries with the aim of providing pupils with opportunities to improve their vocabulary, pronunciation, reading and comprehension,” he remarked, noting that the contestants’ confidence and spelling skills are tested while also creating the platform that will encourage them to strive for excellence in everything they do in relation to the English language.

As for the schools, he said it would push them to provide more stimulating and educational programmes outside the normal school curriculum that put much focus and emphasis on the English language.

All the winners expressed their pride and joy at winning this first competition.

“I worked really hard studying the words and each day I studied 10 words, pronouncing them many times and spelling them aloud,” Chloe said.

She said she enjoys reading a lot and this helped because you become familiar with different words.

She added that she received a lot of support from her family.

As for Navin, the 1st runner up, he too said enjoying reading has helped him a lot.

“I am really happy and proud that all my effort has been worth it as I practiced a lot,” he said.

 

 

 

 

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