Panorama Primary School held a contest to decide their best alphabetical memoriser.
Office workers may take their internet spellcheck for granted, but there is no safety net when standing in front of a microphone. On May 25, learners from the grade 6 and 7 classes took the stage to test their knowledge of precisely arranged letters in a Spelling Bee. With no restarting and no repeating allowed, the margins for error would be minuscule as they attempted to rattle off the vowels and consonants in the correct order.
Learners received five English words and five Afrikaans words with the best out of 10 bagging the prize. Front office glue, Gwen Attwell read off the English words while Afrikaans teacher Tammy Alexander read out the Afrikaans variants. The Afrikaans word for the Grade 6s was relatively simple but for the Grade 7s they doubled in length and difficulty, stumping many of the contestants.
After the 10-question shootout, the field of 20 Grade 6s had clear winners. Muhammad Kalil and Chinasa Masutha came second and third, respectively, with Ashton du Sart coming out on top by one point. The best of the 12 participating Grade 7s was outright but a tiebreaker was needed for second place. Tendekayi Mhziha watched on from the top of the podium as Chelsea Amundala and Chifumanya Osedume were required to answer six more words.
Chelsea’s sudden death English words were ‘congratulations’, ‘impossibility’, and ‘pronunciation’ while Chifumanya received ‘distinguished’, ‘precipitation’ and ‘abbreviation’. The Afrikaans words were too difficult, even with a pen and paper, but it was Chelsea who got the roll of the dictionary dice to secure the silver medal.
Deputy principal Carin de Jager thanked the learners for their bravery on stage and their parents for encouraging participation, urging them to spread the word to other mothers and fathers.
Spelling Bee organiser Mac McLean, echoed those sentiments, saying, “It takes courage to put yourself out there and your willingness is greatly appreciated. Events like this test patience, and build confidence and self-esteem. The skills we have demonstrated here go well beyond just spelling.”
