Two Year 7 students from Wilmslow High School, accompanied by Mr Hulse and Mrs Bargery, travelled to Cambridge on Friday, 6th July, for the MFL National Spelling Bee Championships.
Competitions were held in French, German and Spanish and Shannon Etheridge and Lara Oliver won their places at the German Finals having come through tough regional heats held at Manchester Metropolitan University in March.
Beginning in September of last year, 26,000 Year 7 students from across the country took part in the competition, which involves each student having to correctly translate and pronounce a given word into the foreign language and then spell that word using the alphabet of that language. If that was not enough of a challenge, each student must do this as quickly as possible against the clock.
The day was both long and dramatic. The 36 best spellers in the country gathered in Cambridge for the national semi-final, which was a long and dramatic day with only 4 proceeding to the Grand Final.
Head teacher Mrs Gill Bremner said "Shannon and Lara rose to the challenge and performed superbly to book their places in the final which would take place later that day. The final itself was pure theatre. The standard was incredible and two sudden death rounds were required to determine the final places with the end result being Lara Oliver finishing 4th and Shannon Etheridge being crowned National Champion.
"This was a stunning achievement and made even more incredible when you consider that a student from Wilmslow High School was also crowned National Champion at the inaugural National Spelling Bee last year (Emily Pote)."
In the two years that the MFL Spelling Bee competition has run, students from Wilmslow High School have achieved first place in the North West Championship, runner up in the North West as well as two third places finishes and four girls have qualified for the nationals in Cambridge, achieving two first places, one fourth and one semi-final place.
