Congratulations to Timothy Eckard, who will be travelling to Wellington in November to compete in the FINAL for the Aotearoa New Zealand Spelling Bee.

Timothy competed against about 90 semi-finalist students in the Auckland region.

The competition started with a 20-word written test, ten from a pre-provided word list and ten unseen words.  They took the top 45 spellers from this written test. Timothy had 19/20 and managed to go through to the verbal round. After two rounds of verbal spelling, the group reduced to about 30. After four rounds, they were down to about 16 students; after round six, there were ten left, then seven and then six.

In the next round, 3 made mistakes, and 3 (including Timothy) spelt their words correctly. That automatically guaranteed the 3 with correct spelling a spot in the top 5.  Over the next few rounds, the remaining three battled for the remaining two spots. This was a nail-biting competition for all involved!

We are very proud of Timothy for making it to this point and wish him all the best for the final.

The final consists of the top 22 spellers from across the country and will take place in Wellington on the 4th of November.