Thousands of Top Spellers to Battle it Out

The spelling bee has come a long way, welcome to the massive online version; 60,000 word wizards in 2022 participated in the free digital Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee with a similar number anticipated for this year.

Last year’s winners included Haileybury College’s Zachary Cheng, who scored an impressive 28/30 in 1 min, 39 seconds to take out the Years 7-8 age group; Perth Year 5 student Ozi Egesi from Providence Christian College won the Years 5-6 age round with a perfect 30/30 in 1 min, 32 seconds; while fellow West Australian Joanne Lee, of Bull Creek Primary School, was the Years 3-4 category with 29/30 in a lightning fast 1 min,19 seconds.

The three were rewarded with a special trip to Canberra to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with technology and books for themselves and their schools.

The prizes are just as rich this year, national champions will again head to the nation’s capital to meet the PM and tour Parliament House. They will also receive an iPad, a $250 HarperCollins book pack, as well as a $1000 voucher for their school to buy books, technology and other equipment.

Students from Years 3-8 can be registered by their teachers to take part in the online national competition, run by News Corp Australia’s classroom literacy site, kidsnews.com.au.

Kids News editor Diana Jenkins said kidsnews.com.au, which rewrites daily news into appropriate language for Years 3-8 students, says, “Some of the words in the master list are quite difficult, but learning in a safe digital environment is an easy, fun way to improve English language skills for life."

 About The Bee

• There are three competition levels (Green: Years 3-4; Orange: Years 5-6; Red: Years 7-8), with students receiving 30 randomly generated words from their competition level word list.
• Students have 25 seconds to type each
• Students with the most correct answers in the fastest time progress to
• Three national winners will score a trip to Canberra to meet the Other great prizes include an iPad and a $250 HarperCollins book pack.
• Each national winner’s school also gets a $1000 voucher to put towards books, technology or other equipment and supplies.
• Registrations open and the 2023 school round goes live at spelling-bee.com.au on Monday, July 24 to Friday, August State and territory finals will be held from August 28 to September 1 and the national finals will be run online on September 6 to 7.

Registrations open and the 2023 school round goes live at spelling-bee.com.au on Monday, July 24 to Friday, August 18. State and territory finals will be held from August 28 to September 1 and the national finals will be run online on September 6 to 7.