The Times Spelling Bee 2009

A Spelling Bee is a straightforward competition which tests the spelling abilities of young people.  In 2009 the Times Newspaper organised a national competition for all school students in year 7. This was too good a chance to miss as we know some of students have excellent spelling and literacy skills.

Patricia Gregory , Joe Griffiths, Ethan Maclean, Rebecca Southwell, Douglas Creek, and Caitlin Counley.

The first three took part in the area final against six other schools from across the East Midlands. Well done to the team and the reserves, they did Harry Carlton proud! The competition was stiff, but managed to finish third overall, although with just a little more luck we could have made the national final.

A special well done to Patricia Gregory who out-spelled all of the students from the six schools to be the highest points scorer of the day.

One of students Ethan Maclean had these final thoughts:

“Third is not bad… not bad at all, especially when you’re going against our areas finest spellers in the Times Spelling Bee. After ages of practice and revising, we headed off the Derby Odeon Cinema to compete in our local Spelling Bee showdown. 

First we had the spell-off, in which we had to (not as a team) spell as many words as we could until you couldn’t spell any more. We came reasonable high in that.  Yet it was the second part that got us going. The quick fire challenge.

The rules were simple. You chose a difficulty level (easy, medium or hard – we chose medium) and had to spell as many words as you could. Maybe we should have chosen easy, maybe we shouldn’t have tried to go so fast, I simply do not know.

But what I do know is third is not bad… not bad at all!!!

Well Done!!