Sydney’s youngsters spell success

‘Scrumptious’ spelled doom, while ‘sovereign’ – S-O-V-E-R-E-I-G-N – crowned the winner at the launch of the 2009 NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee.
Year five students Jordan Powell and Jeremiah Iliffe were the final two left standing in the closing round of a mini spelling bee held with two other State finalists from 2008, Nancy Zou and Brianna McAlpine.
Jeremiah, from Woollahra Public School, came out on top as Jordan, from Kingswood Public School, stumbled on the word scrumptious.
Premier Nathan Rees said the results were outstanding for 10-year-old students.
“In Jordan’s time he will never forget the word scrumptious again,” he said.
Brianna was out on the word ‘mollusc’, and Nancy couldn’t quite get the spelling of ‘assimilate’ correct.
Launched at Sydney’s Darlington Public School last Thursday, it is the sixth consecutive year the Premier’s Spelling Bee has been held.
The competition is open to all students in NSW public schools and has two divisions. Junior for students in years three and four, and senior for students in years five and six.
“The spelling bee is an opportunity for NSW government school students in years three to six to improve their literacy skills in a fun way,” said Mr Rees.
“The success of the competition had already paid off.
“NSW spelling results are the best of any state in Australia,” he said.
Schools run in-school competitions to select two representatives from each division to compete at regional finals.
The NSW best young speller will be decided at a State final in Sydney on November 18.

by Sarah Burnell