Two Orange Public School students have taken on the best spellers in the state at the Premier’s Spelling Bee with year 6 student Jessica O’Connor placing fourth.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Year 3 student Nethuli Pathirana made it to the sixth round, which meant she was in the final third of her division, which included many year 4 students.
She spelled ‘arable’ right but ‘assessor’ was her downfall.
Jessica said she spelled ‘maintenance’ correctly but got out on ‘microcosm’.
“When it first started I think there were 50 other people on stage,” she said of her division.
Relieving deputy principal Ngaire Oliver said Nethuli, who speaks English as a second language, was an impressive speller for a year three student.
“Orange Public School is extremely proud of these girls and the spelling strategies that they used meant they were able to spell some complex words,” Mrs Oliver said.
She said the girls spelling strategies included the use of phonics, the sound of words, morphemes, which included word endings, and etymological language, which included the origins and historical roots of words such as Latin-based words.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...