Cranford Review 2015

44
The LRC Buzzing
with the Spelling Bee
The
Learning Resources Centre was
a hive of activity on Monday 6th
July 2015 when Cranford hosted
the first ever Hounslow Primary Schools Spelling Bee
in the morning and in the afternoon the 3rd annual
Hounslow Secondary Schools Spelling Bee.
It was an exciting and nerve-racking morning and
three schools arrived for the Primary Bee.
Beavers Primary School,
Westbrook Primary
School and Berkeley
Primary School and, all
schools entered a team
of four budding spellers
having held internal heats
in their own schools. The
first activity was a memory
game. All students took it
in turn to go and look at an
image filled with words and
they then had to spell these
words back to their teams
who would then recreate the
image. All of the schools
were very competitive and
interestingly all scored 23
out of 25 in this game.
We then went to the first
round; the children had a choice
on spelling an easy, medium and
hard word. The harder the word,
the more points it was worth. The
teams all had to try and earn as
many points as possible to make
it through to the final. After all
the schools had taken part in this
round the children went on a break
whilst the scores were added up. Sadly,
Beavers missed out from being in the
final but only by a couple of points. All
the teams were gathered back and the
finalists Berkeley and Westbrook were
invited to take a seat on the stage. The
next round would be in the format of a penalty shootout,
the first school to spell two words incorrectly
would be eliminated and thus the other team would
be crowned a winner. The two schools took to the
platform and spelt words. The words got more difficult
but the students kept spelling them correctly. I became
increasingly worried I was going to run out of words
as the round progressed. There were gasps around
the room when Westbrook spelt their first incorrect
word but the round continued. The teams spelt a few
more words correctly but then Westbrook spelt another
incorrectly. This meant Berkeley had won the first ever
Hounslow Primary Schools Spelling Bee.
In the afternoon, eight schools had accepted an
invitation to attend and participate in the 3rd annual
Hounslow Secondary Schools Spelling Bee. The
competition is getting bigger every year; Cranford
Community College, Brentford School for Girls,
The Heathland School, Isleworth & Syon, Kingsley
Academy, Lampton School, Reach Academy and St
Marks Catholic School all challenged each other in
an attempt to win the prestigious and highly soughtafter
trophy. Councillor for Hounslow and author
Shaida Mehrban volunteered to sit on the panel and
award the trophy to the winning school. The students
battled it out in teams to try and accumulate the most
points. The first round was nerve-racking and all of
the students eagerly spelt the words they were given.
After all the teams had competed the students then
had a break whilst the points were counted. It was
then announced that Cranford Community College,
The Heathland School, Isleworth & Syon and Reach
Academy had made it into the final. The four schools
chose their best two spellers to represent them in the
final. The difficulty of words for the round was chosen
by the panel. At first all of the schools spelt their words
correctly, then after a few rounds Reach Academy
spelt their word incorrectly, this meant they were out.
The teams proceeded on and next to fall under the
pressure was Cranford Community College and soon
after Isleworth and Syon. This meant The Heathland
School won. Shadia Mehrban was invited to award the
trophy.
It was a very successful exciting day and Cranford
students can be very proud of their achievements again
this year. Roll on next year’s challenge.
Mahavir Ladva
(Learning Resources and Study Centre Manager)