School spelling bee champions crowned

Geraldton and other Mid West students recently converged on Allendale Primary School to compete in the second annual Midwest Spelling Bee.

Noteworthy achievements include Geraldton Primary School’s Priyasha Kshteri winning the Year 4 competition despite her first language being Nepali.

Midwest Regional Education Office staffer Fiona Angelatos said the win was a result of diligent study at home and during lunch times.

Tough competition also forced the Year 7 individual contest into 33 rounds and in the end, the judges awarded first place to students Jasmin Joyner and Sophie Brennan, who finished the round spelling “asphyxiation”.

Individual competition winners included Ryan Landreth (Year 3), Priyasha Kshteri (Year 4), Alexa Winfrey (Year 5), Winnie Bui (Year 6), Jasmin Joyner and Sophie Brennan (Year 7), Olivia Myers (Year 8), Chloe Western (Year 9) and Gracie Fisher (Year 10).

Respective team winners from Years 3-10 were Dylan McKenzie and Angus Falconer-Brown (Kalbarri District High School), Priyasha Kshteri and Amelie Dumont (Geraldton Primary School), Claye Gilchrist and Enrico Luces (Geraldton Primary School), Zoe Larsen and Chloe Sayers-Walker (Allendale Primary School), Dylan Spencer and Maryam Imran (Geraldton Grammar School), Ashleigh Naisbitt and Claire Luces (Nagle Catholic College), Tahnee Gronow and Elliot Beat (Geraldton Grammar School) and Gracie Fisher and Andile Sibanda (Nagle Catholic College).

This year, 139 students from 15 schools took part in the competition.

The Midwest Spelling Bee was organised by Geraldton Literacy Strategy Committee.

The test: Year 10 spelling bee list

How’s your spelling? Have a friend put you to the test.

Level 1: excess, feature, sausage, funnel, tenant, guilty, gymnast, receive, remember, unity, strength, various, yeast, tongue.

Level 2: fierce, gazelle, genuine, khaki, necessary, myriad, niche, nutrient, oddity, pertinent, phobia, plasticine, politician, residual, rigmarole, souvenir, subsidiary, surreal, wreath, weird, youth.

Level 3: appearance, applicable, aquarium, archives, atypical, avail, aviator, burnish, caffeine, cajole, capsicum, carpentry, catalogue, centurion, corsage, counterfeit, couscous, criticism, culpable, cumbersome, dais, debris, decorum, deference, deficit, delicatessen, delineate, delinquent, exuberant, exemplify, exonerate, examination, evocative, escalator, equestrian, frivolous, fumigate, gazebo, generic, generosity, genteel, ghoul, gladiator, glandular, globalism, glutinous, goanna, gregarious, heirloom, helicopter, helium, hessian, homicide, humorous, hypocrite, idyllic, intravenous, intrepid, intuition, jeopardy, judicious, legislation, lieutenant, linguist, liqueur, litigation, livelihood, llama, logistics, lucrative, modicum, montage, morphine, nefarious, negotiable, nonchalant, nuisance, paranoia, parenthesis, pedestrian, onyx, opaque, orchid, overwhelm, qualifier, recipient, resilient, resplendent, sanctimonious, sewerage, schematic, technicality, terrestrial, transcend, vengeance, visibility, volatile, wretched.

Level 4: abhor, ablutions, aboriginal, acclaimed, accompaniment, acquisition, acquittal, acreage, acrobatically, acronym, adjacent, advantageous, aerial, affectionate, affiliate, affirmative, albeit, amalgamate, amateurish, ambivalence, analytical, anguish, anthropologist, aperture, apprehensive, aristocracy, armistice, assassin, assignation, asterisk, astringent, atrocious, aubergine, auditorium, aural, authoritarian, autonomous, awry, bankruptcy, barrister, beautician, betrothed, bibliography, bohemian, boudoir, bumptious, cafeteria, camembert, capacious, cauliflower, cayenne, cellophane, circumnavigate, circumstantial, cistern, coerce, colloquialism, consciousness, consignment, contemplative, contentious, copha, corroboration, curvaceous, cynicism, debacle, debauchery, deforestation, denunciation, differentiate, discourteous, discrepancy, disintegrate, distinguished, duress, equivocate, euphemism, elocution, embezzlement, equilateral, exaggerate, exquisite, extortionate, facilitate, facsimile, fortuitous, fraught, fruition, fugitive, gargantuan, gargoyle, geisha, gelatinous, geriatrics, gingivitis, glimpse, glossary, gondolier, guarantor, gumption, gymkhana, gyrate, hallucination, harpsichord, hibiscus, hypothetical, imperceptible, inaccurate, inauspicious, incarcerate, incidental, inconceivable, instantaneous, interrogation, intricacy, irredeemable, irrefutable, irrelevant, juggernaut, julienne, jurisdiction, knapsack, languid, liaise, legionnaire, liege, liquidator, longevity, maintenance, malleable, marionette, masquerade, mediocre, melodramatic, meningitis, meringue, metaphor, minestrone, minion, misappropriate, monotonous, muscly, necessitate, notoriety, noxious, occurrence, opulently, orchestrate, osprey, paparazzi, parliamentarian, percentile, peripheral, permissible, personification, perspective, physiotherapy, piquant, polyunsaturated, portfolio, precocious, premises, prerequisite, pretentious, primitivism, primordial, privilege, promenade, quiescent, rebellious, recruitment, redoubtable, regrettable, reiterate, reminiscent, romanticism, seismic, significance, slough, socioeconomic, solicitous, souvlaki, sovereignty, statuesque, statutory, strenuous, stupefied, subcutaneous, successor, succinct, suffragette, suggestible, supremacy, surrealism, surreptitious, suspicion, sustainable, sycamore, syllabus, symposium, thesaurus, trifecta, unaccustomed, uncoordinated, unidimensional, unwarranted, vandalism, vigilance, vindictive, vivacious, warranty, workaholic, worthwhile, wrangle, wreckage, wraith, facetious.

Level 5: abalone, abscess, adjudicator, adolescence, altruistic, ambiguity, annihilate, appendicitis, arpeggio, asphyxiation, belligerent, bocconcini, bruschetta, bureaucrat, camaraderie, cataclysm, cholesterol, coalesce, conscientious, diaphragm, dodecahedron, ensconce, erroneous, euphonium, facetious, gastroenteritis, hyacinth, idiosyncrasy, kaleidoscope, leprechaun, manoeuvre, miscellaneous, perspicacious, plagiarism, pneumonia, polystyrene, psychedelic, psychiatry, recalcitrant, ricochet, saboteur, sceptre, sorghum, spontaneity, synapse, synonymous, thoroughbred, tourniquet, troubadour, vehement, vigilante, hypotenuse, hieroglyphic, submersible, therapeutic, mnemonic.

Level 6: acquiesce, blancmange, bourgeoisie, dichotomy, echelon, eczema, ephemeral, litigious, miscellany, pomegranate, psoriasis, reconnoitre, subpoena, ubiquitous, emphysema, formaldehyde, pharmaceutical.