On the evening of Wednesday 7th June, the impressive Old School Hall within the Kirkcudbright Academy was the venue for the inaugural Academy Spelling Bee Competition.
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright, the competition featured twenty pupils, drawn from the year groups S1 to S3, facing the challenge of spelling increasingly difficult words, during the course of four rounds, in the presence of a large audience.
In welcoming all present, MC for the event, Gavin Scott, spoke briefly about the history of Spelling Bee competitions which began in the USA in 1925. After the first two written rounds, seven pupils remained in contention with each then facing the challenge of spelling a word aloud.
A nail biting Round 4 saw four pupils remaining, with the eventual winner being Scarlett Carter ( main Image).
The audience participated in the event when, in a special written round, five teams tackled the spelling of particularly difficult words including “bivouacking” and “idiosyncrasy”.
Rotary Club President Chris Ingram, presented to Scarlett a book token and the Rotary Club’s prize winners shield, both generously provided by Mrs Sheila Scott, a former member of the English Department at the Academy.
In his closing remarks, the MC praised the pupil participants for taking part and thanked all involved for their contribution to what had proved to be a most successful evening, in particular tribute to Mrs MacDougall of the English Department for her help in the organisation of the competition.
