All the pupils who took part said that the experience had helped them improve their vocabularies as they often looked up words which they did not know. The pupils also commented that their teamwork and communications skills had improved and they had enjoyed the opportunity to meet pupils from other school areas.
During a Midlothian School Librarians Network meeting, we discussed “The Times” Spelling Bee Championship and the positive impact it had had on my pupils. As a result, we decided it would be a good idea to try and stage our own interschool spelling competition. There are six secondary schools in Midlothian: Beeslack Community High School, Dalkeith High School, Lasswade Community High School, Newbattle High School, Penicuik High School and St David’s High School. It was agreed that the event would be organised by the School Librarians, in conjunction with the English Departments of all the schools and that the first competition would be held at Dalkeith Campus, which is shared by two of the schools (one of which is mine). As I had the most experience of this type of competition, I volunteered to make the arrangements for a pilot event.
When I looked at how the competition would be staged, it became clear that it would be necessary to obtain sponsorship in order to fund both the transport for competing teams to travel to Dalkeith (even with the use of our school minibus!) and suitable prizes - £10 Amazon vouchers for each of the winning team and a Shield for their school. I approached the local Co-operative store in Newtongrange and was lucky enough to be awarded £100 from their charity/community fund.
As we intended to follow the same format as “The Times” Spelling Bee, I felt it was important to contact them for permission, which was duly granted. It was also vital that the competition had a strong identity and so we asked pupils from the various schools’ book clubs to suggest a name and a logo which could be used for advertising and award certificates for all the participants. Finally, I booked the school’s assembly hall and arranged to borrow a P.A. system from the Music Department.
The first Midlothian “Spell Masters” competition was held in September 2012 and saw teams of three S2 pupils from each school compete in two rounds, one individual round and one team round. To ensure impartiality, Philip Wark, Midlothian’s Public Library Services Manager was the judge and Elaine Robertson, Library Supervisor at Dalkeith Public Library was the quizmaster. After much excitement, with the two top teams literally neck and neck throughout and extra rounds required, the competition went to a (quickly improvised) “sudden death” round to declare Beeslack Community High School, the Midlothian Spell Masters for 2012.
The pupils loved it and can’t wait until this year’s competition, which
will be hosted at the defending champions’ school.
Colin Orr is the School Librarian at St. David's High School in Dalkeith.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2013 SLA(S) newsletter.
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