The ICBL Starcom Junior National Spelling Bee a major success

ICBL recently staged the finals of the third annual National Junior Spelling Bee with 97 children from 30 of the island’s primary schools vying for the top prize. At the end of competition, 10-year-old Zefan Scott of St Winifred’s School copped the top place prize. 

Second place went to Khaidian Rawlins of St Luke’s Brighton Primary and Josiah Griffith of The People’s Cathedral School placed third. Ethan Serrao of Providence Elementary was fourth and Aimeree Thompson of The Christ Church Girl’s School was fifth overall. 

The large audience in the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) and over 1000 people who were tuned in to the event’s live stream watched as Scott walked away with some enviable prizes. These included two airline tickets to London on Virgin Atlantic, a staycation at The Sands, supermarket vouchers from A-One Supermarkets, $2500 in cash from ICBL, and a laptop compliments the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme, among several other prizes. The St. Winifred’s School also received $5000 from ICBL. The top three students and top three schools all received cash prizes. 

The finalists advanced through the two rounds of the October 14 preliminaries with 70 participants advancing to the Finals on their first attempt. All competing had at least two contestants in the finals with 16 schools advancing all four students. 

Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Underwriting Officer of ICBL Goulbourne Alleyne said: “This year’s Spelling Bee was always expected to be a keenly contested one. A total of 70 students made it to the finals on their first attempt and three schools had all four entrants advance in the first round. That speaks to the calibre of students we have participating this year and speaks well to the level of preparation and work being done in the schools.” 

The Spelling Bee is an integral part of ICBL’s Corporate Social Responsibility effort as it seeks to enhance the literary skills of the nation’s children and will continue to feature highly on its annual calendar of activities. 

Alleyne said: “ICBL is fortunate to be recognised as an excellent place to work, which means we attract many job hunters and see many resumes. It was reading through these thousands of resumes over time that we realised the quality of writing was on the decline, and this cemented our decision to get involved in improving literacy in Barbados.” 

Zefan Scott though happy with his performance as his first time in competition, said he was also relieved that it was finally over. Flanked by his father Allen Scott after the prizegiving ceremony, Zefan said the preparation was hard because he had to study a lot but, in the end, while he was not sure of some of the words from the competition, he knew the words he had. 

Allen added that the enthusiasm from Zefan was there even though sometimes it was tough. Describing the preparation as intense given the number of words he had to learn, “he put in every ounce of work that was needed,” Allen stated. 

Paula Scott, Learning Support Teacher at St. Winifred’s School, described Zefan as a hard worker, heavily supported by his parents. She spoke about the value of the Spelling Bee. 

“I think it is very essential,” she said, while adding that “these days children are often on tablets and devices and do not know how to communicate or spell. Using social media platforms like WhatsApp, they abbreviate words but need to learn the root words and know how to work it into composition, spelling, and comprehension.” 

(PR)