Point Cumana RC wins inaugural spelling B tournament

Point Cumana (St Peters) RC Primary School emerged as the champion at the inaugural Spelling B Tournament organised by the NGO, Carenage Improvement and Empowerment League (CIEL), on January 21.

The school’s team consisting of Amiah Adams, seven; Aldrin Johnson, nine; and Kieyanna Seechan, 11, did their best in their respective categories in the competition for primary schools within the Carenage community at The Anchorage, Chaguaramas.

CIEL’s chairperson Deanna Francis, said, “The tournament served as a platform for stimulating healthy competition while building students’ capacity and community spirit within Carenage.”

She explained that the students were given a list of words to learn and the primary school held intra-school spelling competitions during the previous term to determine who would represent the schools in the infants, junior, and senior categories.

The CIEL Spelling B was the first such competition the winners ever entered. However, they said they had seen local school competitions on TV as well as in the movies so they knew what to expect.

Amiah said she was excited and not nervous at all because she expected to win her category after learning the 79 words on her list. And she was right to be confident, as she placed first in the infants category.

Aldrin said he was happy when he placed first in the junior category. He said he did not know if he could spell all of the 95 words correctly so he was nervous before the tournament.

“When I started spelling the first word I was nervous but I wasn’t for the rest of them,” he said.

Kieyanna, who placed third in the senior category, admitted that she was nervous because she found some of the words were very hard to spell. She said, “When I first entered I was scared but when I saw children younger than me had confidence in themselves I wasn’t nervous anymore.”

Kieyanna, who is also preparing for her Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam this year, said it was a bit difficult to balance her classes, SEA preparations, homework, and studying the 101-word Spelling B list but she did her best.

She said when she leaned the school won she was happy and “overwhelmed”, especially when she realised the school would make history as the first school to win that competition.

All three said their parents are proud and excited about the win. Amiah said she got a slice of cake from her parents, and Kieyanna recalled that her grandmother said she could not have spelt some of the words Kieyanna did.

Aldrin and Amiah said they were hugged and congratulated by their classmates after the marks were tallied and it was announced that the school had won. Kieyanna said, “I was sad I came third but my friends hugged me and told me that I did my best and the point was representing the school and helping the school win.”

Carenage Boys’ and Carenage Girls’ Government Primary schools placed second and third respectively.