A Spelling Bee Competition for Standard One Students of Anglican School

Today at the Mexico Sports Center in Belize City, standard one students from Anglican primary schools across the country participated in a spelling bee competition. It is not to be confused with the annual competition organized by Bowen and Bowen, but the format is similar. These young students go through multiple rounds of words to gain points and are eliminated along the way. News Five spoke with General Manager for Anglican Schools Jeremy Cayetano about the event.

Jeremy Cayetano

Jeremy Cayetano, General Manager, Anglican Schools

“This spelling bee is for students in the lower division; it is standard one students. You will recall that for the past two years or so, students have been home and so on and we want to get them back into the scheme of things. So we have our standard ones here from all over the country. This is a spelling bee for Anglican schools all over the country of Belize here right now.”

Duane Moody

“Let’s talk about the importance of this because it is not part of the Bowen and Bowen spelling bee that they always have.”

Jeremy Cayetano

“No, no, no. I know that Bowen and Bowen spelling bee is for the upper division students. We are not competing with them or anything, but this is for the students in the lower division. We want to get them to realise and recognise that spelling, the correct spelling of words is important and that is from they are young. They are really emphasizing literacy, reading, all of those things and we believe that it is important and that’s why we are here today. A student of each Anglican primary school that is in the competition from the north all the way to the south. Our farthest school is Corozal, Saint Paul’s and the farthest south is Saint John’s Memorial, Placencia and they are right here. We have the schools from Cayo, we have the schools from Belmopan, the Belize City schools, so we are Belize all over right now.”

Freddy Nicholson

Coming in first place was Freddy Nicholson from Queen Square Anglican School; second place went to Aalaiah Bilal of Saint John’s Memorial Anglican School in Placencia and Darishae Moore took third place. She’s from Saint Ann’s Anglican School in Belmopan