The Vivien Vanterpool Primary School at Island Harbour demonstrated its supremacy when it became the 2013 champion of the Annual Primary Schools Spelling B Competition, part of the programme in the run-up to the celebration of Anguilla Day.
The LIME Anguilla sponsored competition, held at the Orealia Kelly Primary School Auditorium, on Tuesday evening, involved students from all six public primary schools. The Central Christian School, which was also to be a participant, unfortunately dropped out of the competition at the last minute due to the illness of one of its master spellers.
The Vivien Vanterpool School scored 93 points, winning by six points its nearest rival, the Orealia Kelly Primary School, which obtained 87 points. In third place was Valley Primary which scored 79 points. The other three schools in the competition were the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School with 78 points; the 2011 champion – the Adrian T. Hazell Primary School – with 64 points; and Morris Vanterpool School with 60 points.
The winning Vivien VanterpoolSchool received a voucher for US$1,000 and each of its two spellers got a Lenova Desktop Computer. The Orealia Kelly School, which placed second, was presented with a US$750 voucher and its two spellers received three months free internet. Valley Primary School received a US$500-dollar voucher while each of the representative students received three months free internet. Consolation vouchers of US$300 were given to the other three schools.
LIME Anguilla’s General Manager, Mark Romney, said the telecommunications company was pleased to have sponsored the Annual Spelling B Competition for the 24th year. He noted that the event was renamed the Ann B. Newton (Teacher Ben) Spelling Competition in her honour.
“This is very much a part of our continued efforts to assist with educational development in Anguilla,” he said. “The value of our sponsorship is over US$5,000 including a number of prizes for the students, and ‘teasers’ for the crowd as well.”
Education Officer Pre-Primary, Veda Harrigan, said the competition was aimed at making the children better spellers. She explained that it involved various themes and categories and also comprised words related to subjects taught in the schools.