Spelling Bee Champion 2016

Reported by ELC

     Owing to popular demand, a  Spelling Bee was organized recently by the English Club for students of our school. Approximately 100 students signed up for the preliminary round and went through a ‘spelling test’ on 6 September to determine who would qualify for the final round. Six finalists were selected from the Senior Category while ten were chosen from the Junior Category due to the overwhelming response. 

     The finalists in each category were divided into two teams (Team A and Team B) to compete against each other. Held on 9 September at ELC, the final round saw spellers taking turns to verbally spell a broad selection of words with varying degrees of difficulty. Words which were wrongly spelt by a speller were open to members from the same team.

     Team B from both the Junior and Senior Category emerged as the champion.  Victor Gan Ming Yang from S3 Manchester  and Chan Zi Qing from J3 Chicago performed extremely well and were declared the Best Speller in their respective category. There was initially a tie between Lee Yuan Fu and Victor Gan, the two contenders for the Best Speller award (Senior Category). This called for an additional round of five words and Victor ultimately beat Yuan Fu by a mere one point.

     Madam Boo, Vice-Principal and Head of ELC and Ms Evon, Deputy Head of ELC gave away the prizes at the end of the session.

List of Winners:

Category :  Junior

Champion – Team B

William Chua Keong Pin (J3 Melbourne), Martin Lee Qi Hong (J3 Canberra), Wesley Lau Wei Zhong (J3 Ottawa), Teh Songchze (J3 Chicago), Johness

en Soo Zhin Thao  (J3 Canberra)

First Runner-up : Team A

Chan Zi Qing   (J3 Chicago), Chew Yi   (J3 Melbourne), Mandy Chai Tze Ru  (J3 Melbourne), Wong Tsong Howe  (J3 Canberra), Bryan Low  Keng Seong  (J3 Melbourne)

Category :  Senior

Champion – Team B

Bernard Tan  (S1 Ottawa), Victor Gan Ming Yang  (S3 Manchester), Tan Wei Yi  (S2 Chicago )

First Runner-up : Team A

Tan Kanon  (S2 Canberra), Lee Yuan Fu   (S2 Canberra) , Choong Chi Jiong   (S2 Adelaide)

Best Speller :        

Chan Zi Qing (Junior) , Victor Gan Ming Yang (Senior)

Congratulations to all the prize winners on their remarkable performance !

Lee Yuan Fu (S2 Canberra)

 

   I think the Spelling Bee has proved to me that my spelling wasn’t really on a par with what I originally thought. In fact, it might have been better! Overall, the competition was decent enough, though I must say it was quite tense during the final round, especially when Victor and I were vying for the Best Speller award! Perhaps in the future, we can have a semi-final round instead of going straight from the preliminary round to the finals.

Martin Lee Qi Hong (J3 Canberra)

     I first took part in Spelling Bee when I was in Junior One. My team and I went all the way to the semi-final round but failed to get through it. However, it was still a great experience for me. This year was my second time taking part in this competition. It was a bit different from the previous one. In the preliminary round, we wrote down the words given by an announcer on a piece of paper. The ten best spellers were able to get to the final round. I was one of the lucky participants. I was on cloud nine when I heard the news from my teacher. In the final round, my team and our opponents went through a tough competition. My team eventually won by only two points. I think the credit should go to my team members because they did extremely well. From this Spelling Bee, I have learnt more about the importance of teamwork.