Siddharth Yedla, 9, a Year 5 student at Cayman Prep, got through ‘guillotine’ to win the 25th annual RBC Royal Bank Primary National Spelling Bee held Tuesday at the John Gray High School Performance Hall.
The audience was on the edge of their collective seats as the competition moved into the final round, with students spelling their way through the nail-biting battle.
The quiet, laid-back, but clearly focused Yedla took home the trophy, by correctly spelling ‘guillotine’, impressively displaying grace under pressure as he contemplated the word.
He bested 66 public and private primary students from across the Cayman Islands, including those being homeschooled.
Matthew Anderson and Matthew Moore, both from Edna M. Moyle Primary School, secured second and third place, respectively.
“I’m very proud and I feel great … I was confident in myself,” Yedla told the Cayman Compass after his win.
With just 10 days to prepare for the competition, he said, “it was hard because I had very little time to practice a lot of words”.
Holding up his trophy with a smile, Yedla said it was a lot of work, but it paid off in the end.
Even though this was his first time competing in a spelling bee, Yedia said he wasn’t nervous at all and would encourage other students to take part, “because the feeling when you participate or win, is amazing”.
Parish Minton, who coached Yedla and the rest of the Cayman Prep team, told the Compass, “I’m just so happy for them, they’ve really loved it, and they were just so enthusiastic as a team throughout. I’m hoping it will inspire the rest of the students to just go for it.”
‘Amazing skill level’
“I think one of the most fascinating things for me, every year when I come to the spelling bee, is the number of words that I myself can’t spell,” Mark Ray, director of the Department of Education Services, said in his opening remarks Tuesday.
“It just amazes me the skill level that our young people have, their preparation that has gone into their own skill development … certainly that is in no small part to their efforts but definitely [also from] teachers, parents, supporters.”
Ray noted how important broad support is to these young students.
“When I talk about partnership, I’m talking about this village that’s supporting our young people, not just to demonstrate their competency in this enrichment activity but certainly being able to transfer the knowledge and skills that they take from preparing and participating in these types of competitions and … applying it to real-life scenarios.”
Khadene Lobban, country head of sponsor RBC Royal Bank (Cayman) Limited, spoke of the benefits of spelling bees.
“How wonderful to see our Caymanian youth expanding their vocabularies and digging deep to learn the value of language and the importance of executing with grace under pressure … it takes courage and determination to stand and be tested in front of an audience,” she said.
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