Interhouse Spelling Bee 2023
This year's interhouse Spelling Bee was another resounding success. Students across Years 7 to 11 took part in this event, which required them to spell a variety of words aloud - from easy to very difficult - in order to win points for their teams.
In the first round, students took turns spelling six words, ranging from easy to difficult. Special mention must go to Rose Smith Matthews (7KH), Oliver Adams (7MS) and Ella Wise (10KH) who were the only ones to spell all of their words correctly. This is no trivial thing when Rose was required to spell 'fructiferous', Ella had to spell 'iridescent', and Oliver was given 'misogynistic'. These words were completed aloud and under considerable pressure -- so very well done! Further mention must go to Joe Shelton (10 MS - 5/6 correct, including 'polysyndeton'), Grace Manville (9KH - 5/6 correct, including 'haemoglobin'), Finlay Munsen (8RP - 5/6 correct, including 'therapeutics') and Lewis Gore (11RP - 5/6 correct, and I don't blame him for misspelling 'winceyette'!!). Very well done, all!
Round two was the 'Quickfire Challenge', in which teams had to spell as many words as possible in 2 minutes. TS and KH both scored 20 correct spellings apiece, while MS scored 21. RP did an amazing job of getting 25 correct, earning them 50 points ('medium' spellings were worth 2 points).
Finally, the Head-to-Head round saw TS vs RP, and KH vs MS. Obinna Uliem (9TS) went toe-to-toe with Ron Zaki (10RP), with Ron getting the ultimate edge with 9/10 spellings correct, including 'crystallographic'. Then Thomas Cohen (11KH) went up against Charlie Morgan (who had been formidable in Round 2, by the way!), with Thomas just pipping him to the post with an impressive 7/10.
The final results were:
1st Place: RP (80 pts)
2nd Place: KH (71 pts)
3rd Place: MS (69 pts)
4th Place: TS (59 pts)
I would like to thank all students who took part and supported their houses. Every competitor helped make this a fun and exciting event. Thanks also go to Mrs Clements and Mrs Harris for scorekeeping and adjudicating when my hearing was (at rare moments) questionable!
Mr Harris