Following regional tournaments, 28 “Super Spellers” and 21 “Maths Whizzes” qualified for the diocesan level.
Given it was the first year of the competition, the standard was very high. Students competed brilliantly and showed excellent spirit and sportsmanship throughout the gruelling rounds of both the spelling and maths bees.
The diocesan spelling bee gives students with a talent or skill in memorising or recognising the sounds and letter blends of words the chance to succeed in a single elimination knockout tournament. Each student is given a word of similar difficulty or from a similar category that they have to decipher and spell correctly. One strike and you’re out.
The maths bee concept was created more than five years ago by a student from St James’ Primary School, Muswellbrook in response to a need to promote mathematics within the school. It is similar to the spelling bee in terms of a single elimination knockout. Students are given a short mathematical problem in either addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or problem solving and asked, in a short frame of time, to mentally compute the answer.
A terrific time was had by all and we hope to see all schools and regions in the Diocese compete in 2020.
Congratulations to the following students, who were winners and runners-up on the day.
Thank you to the staff of St Catherine’s Catholic College, Singleton, for their outstanding hosting of the event, to the principals and teachers who supported it in its first year, and to the parents and students for their outstanding enthusiasm.
We cannot wait for 2020.
SPELLING BEE RESULTS
| ES1 | STAGE 1 | STAGE 2 | STAGE 3 | |
| WINNER | William Yapp - St Mary's Warners Bay | Lili Aveiro - St Joseph's Merewether | Marie Betts - St Joseph's Merewether | Noel Peterson - St John's Lambton |
| RUNNER UP | Grace Turner - St James' Kotara South | Samuel Williams - St Joseph's Merriwa | Max Adams - St Francis Xavier's Belmont | Tom Harborne - St John's Lambton |
MATHS BEE RESULTS
| ES1 | STAGE 1 | STAGE 2 | STAGE 3 | |
| WINNER | Grace Turner - St James' Kotara South | Luis Griffiths - St Paul's Rutherford | Harley Harrison - St Catherine's Singleton | Cody Bates - St Joseph's Merriwa |
| RUNNER UP | Axel Runchel - St James' Kotara South | Edward - St Mary's Scone | Koby Gawthorn - St James' Kotara South | Natasha Hague - St Paul's Rutherford |
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