Andrew Mole, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper
The Rotary Club of Kerang’s annual spelling bee was back big time – and you could feel the buzz around this month’s 25/27th anniversary event.
A hugely popular primary school showdown, pre-Covid-19, it was regularly pulling 90 or more contestants from years 4, 5 and 6 in schools across Gannawarra Shire.
In the post-Covid-19 world, however, all those little bees seemed to be busy elsewhere and in 2023, numbers had slumped to around 30.
But co-ordinator Colleen Scriven says 12 months has changed everything and in 2024, the biggest challenge was where to put all the contestants – in the end 70 had enrolled and there were 35 Year 4s alone, more than all the previous year’s entries.
And Colleen says they were all so good there was a genuine concern the competition would drag on into the early hours of the following morning before enough words could be found to confound the baby brainiacs.
Eventually though, the spellbound audience watched the miniature super spellers fall one by one by the wayside until the three winners were finally crowned.
They were Noah Parsons, Leitchville Primary School (Year 4), Wesley Richard, Kerang Christian College (Year 5) and Juliet Ralston, Koondrook Primary School (Year 6).
Colleen says Wesley and Juliet were very impressive repeat winners and Noah emerged as a new force on the spelling bee scene.
“His school just squeaked him in on the morning of the competition – and he was the only one they sent,” she says.
“And he was an absolute delight, every time he got a word right, he did a little victory jig and had the biggest smile.
“Even more impressive, he did it the hard way. The first word he got in the oral round might have been accidentally included – it was chronology – but he knocked it over and kept going.”
The competition for all three years starts with a written round of 10 words and contestants must get at least nine correct to advance to the challenging oral section, where they stand alone in front of the judges and the audience.
“This year, we had entries from schools all across the shire, such as Kerang, Cohuna, Leitchville, Boort, Pyramid Hill and Koondrook,” Colleen adds.
“While technically, this was our 25th spelling bee, it is actually 27 years since we launched it – blame that on Covid-19.”
And truth be told, Colleen gets as big a kick (if not bigger) out of the competition as the kids – even after running the past 13 spelling bees.
In between, she co-ordinates a Rotary Junior Leadership Program, which is aimed at Year 6 students and that is now in its 11th year.
“I get so much satisfaction out of watching the students’ progress, and their enthusiasm and determination,” she confesses with a grin.
“They are competing for a trophy and a book prize, but I think for nearly all of them, they just want to succeed, to see how far they can push themselves.
“Doing this competition is a passion of mine, I love working with them all, but the kids, well, there are a lot of little kids here with very big dreams and very big goals – they are so impressive.
“And I don’t just mean the winners, I mean all of them; they are all so very good at it, and their disappointment when they drop out, or make a simple slip, is there to see, but their approach is infectious, and they can all go home with their heads held high.”
Footnote: It would appear the spelling bee (which the Americans claim is uniquely theirs, of course) has nothing to do with the insect of the honey variety. Both the US and English incarnations agree ‘bee’ is based on an old English reference to a group of people socially gathering for a single purpose and was commonly used in the 1700s when describing activities such as quilting, spinning, husking, apple picking, sewing and barn raising. The earliest printed reference to spelling bee dates back to 1825.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 26 September 2024.
