In a packed Silcox Theatre, senior students faced off in gladiatorial fashion in the annual Saint Felix spell-a-thon.
Across three key stages, the top spellers, who had emerged from a series of heats, competed in two rounds of fiendishly difficult spellings in front of their peers. The competition was intense with little separating all contestants. In KS3 and KS5, spell-offs were needed to determine the winners.
The results were as follows:
KS3 John Pitt (Rowell)
KS4 Tait Marsden (Edmond)
KS5 Freya Atwell (Pemberton)
Commiserations to Imogen Whyte who scored 20/20 but lost in a spell-off.
Th atmosphere was electric and students sportingly applauded both their own house representatives and their competitors. This is a fun competition but has a serious purpose – to publicise the importance of accurate spellings. The English Department is using the data from the heats to identify the most common misspellings and will be taking steps to tackle any errors or misunderstandings in an enhanced focus on spelling.