Spelling bee aiming to revive ‘dying art’

A "horrendous" word list was cracked out to challenge five finalists in the sudden death round of Enrich’s first spelling bee earlier this week.

"Protagonist" earned Dexter Feaver his winning spot, "exacerbate" landed fellow Waihopai School pupil Fletcher Campbell the runner-up position.

Enrich is a one-day school for gifted learners in Invercargill.

While the words proved too "obsessive" or "obnoxious" for the "turbulence" of the competition, the morning produced an "exhilarating" final round and "admirable" "acclaim" for the two Waihopai School pupils.

Dexter conceded there were some words given to fellow contestants he would not have been able to spell.

Focusing on developing his spelling skills was important as he planned to become an author, he said.

Fletcher confessed spelling was not his strong suit but he wanted to "land a trophy" and dedicate it to his pet dog who had died the day before.

He found the words from "the list of horrors" and "horrendous" list the most challenging.

Teacher Marlene Campbell said the competition started with 29 competitors and took more than three hours to whittle down to the final two.

Pupils became inspired to try out a spelling bee after seeing a video clip of an American competition.

"They found that whole thing fascinating ...

"Spelling is a bit of a dying art and we were hoping that it might motivate people to learn how to spell."

Enrich children, aged from 7-11, had been practising for the past term.

"The improvement in their spelling surprised me.

"At the beginning we noticed definite patterns that were missing: vowel sounds, blends, rules like ‘I before e except after c’, things like that they weren’t aware of."

By Toni McDonald