The Times Spelling Bee aims to discover the country’s best young spellers and make spelling fun for children of all abilities. More than 1,000 schools across the UK entered a team for the 2010 Spelling Bee.
St. Michael’s College, Enniskillen won the N. Ireland heat, held in The Waterfront, Belfast on Tuesday 4th May. The team members, all Year 8 pupils, were Donal Walsh, Lorcan McCaughey, Headon Hughes-Jordan and Padraig Hegarty
The second placed team was St Patrick’s Academy, Co Tyrone and St Patrick’s Grammar School, Co Armagh was third.
St Michael’s travel to Liverpool on Thursday 20th May to take part in the semi finals. St Louise’s Grammar, Ballymena, the winning team from the earlier regional heat, will also compete there. Mrs Janet Cross and her colleague Mrs Rosemary Cupples will accompany the boys.
In preparation for the competition St Michael’s ran a Spelling Bee in January for all Year 8 pupils and the 4 winners went on to represent the school in the regional heat. The following are some of the words the boys spelt correctly to reach the semi finals – abbreviation, caesura, effervescent, ostentatious, questionnaire, sanctimonious, telekinesis and vermicelli.
The ten winning teams from the semi finals will travel to London to compete in the Grand Final in June.