Almost 100 students from across NSW will be putting their best foot forward at the 2019 Annual Premier's Spelling Bee final today.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the competition has become increasingly popular since it started in 2004 as a way to support students in their spelling whilst having fun at the same time.
"Literacy is a crucial part of a child's education and it is important we incorporate fun and exciting ways of learning it into the curriculum," Ms Berejiklian said.
"The Spelling Bee is a fantastic way to not only support children to become better spellers and extend their vocabulary, but also to encourage them out of their comfort zones and introduce them to other keen spellers from across the State.
"I congratulate this year's finalists for making it this far and wish them all the best for today."
Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said she hoped the Premier's Spelling Bee challenge would support students in their literacy learning for years to come.
"This year we have seen an unprecedented participation of almost 170,000 students from 1006 public schools across the State, which is just fantastic," Ms Mitchell said.
"The Spelling Bee competition has encouraged hundreds of thousands of students to become the best spellers they can be, and I look forward to the challenge benefiting students for decades to come."
Students needed to win their school, zone and regional finals to qualify for today's State Final. This included correctly spelling words such as perpetual for the Junior competition and preposterous for the senior competition.
Six schools have finalists in both the senior and junior competition:
- Barnier Public School
- Bolwarra Public School
- Hornsby South Public School
- New Lambton South Public School
- Wiley Park Public School
- Yamba Public School
This year NSW was ranked first in Australia in spelling across all year groups in the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
To accommodate the growth in entrants, the NSW Department of Education this year hosted 49 regional finals, of which 28 were in rural NSW and 21 in Sydney Metro.
For more information on the Premier's Spelling Bee Challenge visit: https://www.artsunit.nsw.edu.au/premiers-spelling-bee.
