The Modern Language and Arts Department of the Intermediate High School hosted its first Spelling Bee Competition on October 24, 2016, dubbed “Exploring our Vincentian Culture.” This theme was chosen to commemorate our 37th Independence as a country. Although we are Vincentians, many of us do not know or understand much about our rich cultural heritage. With this in mind, the main objective of the activity was to highlight Vincentian words used in sports, food, craft, festivals, places, music and language.{{more}} The sentences and meanings that accompanied these words gave listeners a chance to learn something about our culture.

Students and teachers witnessed 10 participants from Form 1 and 2 in action. Representing Form 1 were: Dequan Miller, Therese Simmons, Princess Johnson and Ryan Ellis; representing Form 2 were: Kamal Glasgow, Daniel Bacchus, Brittney David, Moana Glasgow, Cam’ron Charles and Tamara Edwards.

The participants were all excited to begin. At the end of Round Three, seven participants advanced. Further, at the end of Round Four, five participants advanced to the final round. The crowd’s excitement grew when the final two participants were at ‘bottleneck’. What seemed like a never-ending battle between the two, lasting over 20 minutes, ended when one of the remaining two participants misspelt “Balliceaux”. The results were as follows: 3rd position – Kamal Glasgow; 2nd position – Brittney David; 1st position – Princess Johnson.

Albena Jack and Anella Adams from the Curriculum Development Unit, Ministry of Education, judged the competition. Jack, the chief judge, commended the participants for a job well done. Further, she stated that she was impressed with the activity which seeks to build knowledge about our Vincentian culture. (Contributed by Shara Ollivierre-Stewart)