Three tie with perfect scores in spelling bee final
Three pupils scored perfect scores to win joint first place in this year’s primary schools spelling bee final.
Nayil Arana, 11, of St Ignatius Catholic School, Chayce Jones, 10, of Prospect Primary, and Aaron Fernandes, 10, of George Town Primary School, received the Premier’s Shield for the
National Spelling Bee Primary Competition on Wednesday, 1 December.
The awards were presented by Captain Eugene Ebanks, standing in for Premier McKeeva Bush, who was off island.
Second place went to Denzil Boyd, 10, of Prospect Primary School. Third place was awarded to Khajia Campbell, 8, of Cayman Academy, who faced off for the only spell-off of the evening with Year 6 student Tiona Miller of North Side Primary School.
School Improvement Officer Herbert Crawford, who announced the winners, said the standard this year was among the best he had seen “from the perspective of the number of students getting perfect scores and getting high marks as well”.
“The words were by no means easy, they were challenging, but you saw the ease with which some of those words were spelled,” Mr. Crawford told the large audience at Mary Miller Hall.
First prize was a laptop; a spell-off for first place was avoided when Minister of Education Rolston Anglin agreed to provide two more laptops so that each winning boy could have one.
Words the children were challenged to spell ranged from the political to the religious, with electioneering, caucus and referendum among them, as well as heaven, Beelzebub, and ecumenical. Other words that might have flummoxed older spellers were bandeau, catarrh,
haberdashery, oesophagus and zoophyte.
Mr. Crawford said he believed it was the first time that the winners were all boys, with the trio spelling every word read to them by spell master Mellony Bryan.
Cayman Brac’s Creek and Primary School students Amanda Ferguson, Deandra Watson and Serena Nelson picked up the award for best performing school, a distinction the school has earned several times over the years. The children and their chaperones were flown to Grand Cayman on a special flight by Cayman Airways.
The spelling bee final, sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada and the Department of Education, drew students from schools throughout Cayman, with the 15 finalists coming from Montessori by the Sea, Cayman Academy, Creek and Spot Bay, St. Ignatius, Prospect, Red Bay, North Side, George Town, John A. Cumber, Cayman Prep and Grace Christian primary schools.
Other pupils who took part in the competition were Kalle Broderick, Destini Bush, Abigail Ebanks, James Priaulx, Thomas Sperandeo and Zoe Conolly-Basdeo.
Speaking on behalf of the premier, Captain Eugene said the competitive drive and hard work needed to excel in spelling bees created the kinds of qualities in young people who would go on to be leaders of Cayman in the future.
“Young people, if you know how to spell a word, you are its master… If you have mastered the English language, there is no limit to what you can do,” he said.
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