Spelling Bee Competition to kick off on October 14 | THE DAILY HERALD

Participants in the last spelling bee in 2016.   BELAIR--Another summer vacation has ended and while the children are settling back into the classroom some pupils ages nine to ten years old will be preparing for the annual Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee Competition, which the main organiser, Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle, has been planning for the last ten months. The event, of which Scotiabank is the main sponsor, will start with the preliminaries on Sunday, October 14. The 2017 Spelling Bee was cancelled due to the passing of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The objective of this Spelling Bee is to improve literacy and enhance the pupils’ educational experience. All three Spelling Bee events will be held at Belair Community Center. Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle and the Sunrise Rotaract Club encourage parents, family, friends and the general public to come out and support the pupils. There will be a prize for the school with the best group of supporters. The top 10 finalists of the preliminary segment will head into the semi-finals on Sunday, October 21. The top five of the semi-finalists will head to the final round on Sunday, October 28. As in previous years, participating schools will benefit from the proceeds of the Spelling Bee by being able to submit a “wish list” for items they may need at their respective school. In previous years wish-list items have included projectors, screens and computers. All participants will receive goody bags, while winning pupils and schools receive additional prizes. For the first time tutorial sessions were held for participating pupils in 2016, and it was well received. It has been decided to continue the tutorials for a second year so that participating pupils will again have the benefit of four tutorial sessions being held at University of St. Martin on September 8, 15, 22 and 29. The pupils will be assisted by Rotarians and Rotaractors to learn the words which will give them a better chance to advance to the semi-final and final round of the Spelling Bee. Last years’ finalists were asked for their comments on the Spelling Bee and their comments ranged from, “It was good,” “It was fun,” to “It was a lot of words,” “They learnt many words” and “There was a lot of studying that had to be done.”


Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/79721-spelling-bee-competition-to-kick-off-on-october-14