WIIKWEMKOONG—Two elementary school students from Wasse Abin Pontiac School in Wiikwemkoong recently participated in the Canada Super Spelling Bee.
“Two of our Grade 7 students, Grant Trudeau Lecuyer and Adam Enosse took part in what is called the Canada Super Spelling Bee,” said teacher Natalie Parrington, along with Seven Oshkabewisens, educational assistant. “We had a series of spelling bees at the school and these two students excelled in these events.”
“The Canada Super Spelling Bee accepts the top three spelling champions from a school to compete. We actually had a third student that could have competed, but the student didn’t feel they were ready for this competition,” said Ms. Parrington.
The national championship took place at the Nepean Sportsplex on May 27. “There were competitors from as far away as British Columbia, Calgary and other places across the country,” said Ms. Parrington. She explained at the national competition, “there were no age divisions, they had all the students from Grades 2-8 take part. And the way it works is that everyone takes part in the first round of spelling a word and if they spell it correctly they move on, but if the word is spelled incorrectly, they are out of the competition. Our students were speakers 53 and 60.”
“The competition was shown live on YouTube,” said Ms. Parrington. “Our two students at 53 and 60 had the opportunity to see a lot of students go through ahead of them. And there were probably between 10-15 eliminated in the first round before they even got to the stage.”
Grant and Adam were eliminated in the first round. “They were disappointed, but it is amazing to get that far in the first place. And the studying they had to do to get ready was incredible.”
The organizers of the event had sent out a 300-word list for students to look at to get ready for the competition, said Ms. Parrington. “They studied after school, at home and on the way to the competition. They didn’t receive the word list until the end of March so they had April and May to study. And the list of words were not easy to spell.”
“We are incredibly proud of our two students for working so hard to get there, and the resiliency they showed to participate in a national competition like this,” added Ms. Parrington.
