We held our 5^th annual Eason Spelling Bee in the hall on February the 3^rd. This was the firs time since 2020 the competition had been held due to Covid restrictions being in place during 2021 and 2022. As a result, this was the students first time to participate a Spelling Bee.

There was great level of interest in the Spelling Bee and this was reflected in a huge participation amongst our 5^th and 6^th class pupils.

Ms Doyle’s 3^rd and 4^th, as well as Mr Byrne’s 4^th, came along and were a great audience to a very exciting show!

Mr Byrne and Ms Dagg were our Bee Masters and Ms Doyle acted as our Adjudicator.

Spelling aloud is a very tricky skill so we did a practice round first in which all children had immunity from elimination.

After that we got into the elimination rounds. As words were spelled, Ms Doyle would either say ‘Correct’ or ‘Incorrect’. ‘Correct’ meant you were through to the next round. ‘Incorrect’ meant you were eliminated!

Before we knew it, we were down to the final 6. Making it that far were Cathal O’Leary, Seán Byrne, Teegan O’Callaghan, Megan Mernagh, Cathal Nolan and Leah Weekes. 6 participants left but only 3 medals to win – it was now nail-biting stuff for the audience.

Mr Byrne and Ms Dagg then moved onto their ‘Hard Words’ list. Pretty soon we were down to three – Megan Mernagh, Leah Weekes and Cathal Nolan, the only 5^th class student remaining. The last two Spelling Bees had been won by 5^th class students (Sarah Kane in 2019; Eshaal Faiz in 2020 – read more about that here), surely Cathal couldn’t make it three-in-a-row? Well, guess what, he did!

‘Periodic,’ Mr Byrne said.

‘P-E-R-I-O-D-I-C,’ Cathal stated confidently.

‘Correct!’ Ms Doyle exclaimed!

Cathal Nolan was the Spelling B Champion for 2023! Megan Mernagh took the silver medal after a brilliant performance and Leah Weekes won the bronze after keeping her composure well the whole way through.

Well done to our three medallists and everyone who took part. Cathal will now go on to represent Ballyconnell NS in the Carlow County Final in March the 8^th. Go n-éirí leat, a Chathail! Best of luck, Cathal!

A Big Crowd – Our Spelling Bee 2023 Participants!

 

The Final Six!