Students from 27 schools territory-wide will compete in this year’s Inter-School Spelling Bee which begins on Monday, January 28 with the preliminary round in the primary division at the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall.

The inter-school spelling bee will comprise 20 primary schools (14 public and six private) and seven secondary schools (four public and three private). Minister for Education and Culture, Andrew Fahie will officially declare the spelling bee open at a ceremony on Monday..
The preliminaries for the secondary schools’ category will be held on Wednesday, January 30.

Twenty-one secondary school students will compete in this year’s spelling bee. Both preliminary rounds on January 28 and 30 will be held at the Sir Rupert Briercliffe Hall beginning at 7 p.m.
Coordinator of the Competition and Education Officer for Language Arts Susan Frett Potter told the Department of Information and Public Relations that the competition serves to promote the importance of spelling in all disciplines. 

”This competition will help students increase their vocabulary thereby enhancing their reading and communication skills,” she said.
Frett Potter said that this year’s spelling bee promises to be even more exciting than last year’s. 

”After a series of tie breaker rounds last year, we were unable to break the tie for first place and therefore awarded first place to two students in the secondary category,” she added. 

The semi-finals will take place on February 11 and 13, and the finals on March 4 and 5. The competition will be broadcast live on ZROD (103.7 FM).

The Ministry and Department of Education and the Rotary Club of Road Town are jointly sponsoring the Spelling Bee. Additional sponsors include, but are not limited to, Cable & Wireless, Harneys, J.S. Archibald and Co.; MB’s Ice; BVI Springs; DeCastro Marking Products Ltd., MWM Financial Services, ZROD; First Bank Virgin Islands, B&B Trucking and Heavy Equipment Services, Drake’s Traders and Skeltons Group of Companies, 

The competition is a prelude to Education Week which will be observed from March 9-15.

The Inter-School Spelling Bee Champions for 2007 were St. George’s Primary School in the primary division and Whitney Allen and Donella Thomas of the Bregado Flax Secondary Division were named co-champions in the secondary division.