St Laurence’s Parish School has been crowned champion school at the Central Western Cluster Spelling Bee for Catholic schools, after a standout performance from its young wordsmiths. The Forbes school claimed an impressive sweep of the individual competitions, with students winning the Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 titles to secure the overall trophy. Year 6 student Amaira Nand sealed the senior victory with the winning word “assignment”. Carmel Siju took out the Year 5 title, while Leo Sheather secured the Year 4 win, completing a remarkable trio of achievements for the school. St Laurence’s was also proudly represented by Ayla Morrison in Year 2 and Lettie Schofield in Year 3. The five students earned their places in the regional event after winning their respective grades in the school’s annual spelling bee. The competition, held in Narromine, brought together students from Holy Family Parkes, Peak Hill, Warren, Trangie, Trundle, Condobolin and the host school. Despite not undertaking any special preparation, Amaira said a love of reading and consistent classroom practice helped her stay sharp. “We don’t really practise but every week we do spelling tests,” she said. “We do 40 words each week.” Her weekly word lists can be more challenging than those she was actually asked to spell in competition, but spelling out loud rather than writing can be the real test. St Laurence’s staff praised all five representatives for their outstanding results, noting that the achievements reflected the students’ hard work, enthusiasm and dedication.
