To be(e) or not to be(e)

We all know the problem:

Two words sound the same but are spelled differently, or two words have the same origin but different spellings. Ayesha (Class 5/1) and Amir (Class 5/4) faced this problem when one of them had to spell “fortieth” and the other had to spell “fiftieth” to determine the winner of our spelling bee. But let's start from the beginning.

On 17 April 2025, all Year 5 pupils met at the Programmkino Ost to take part in our annual Year 5 Spelling Bee. Three students from each class (twelve in total) competed against each other in three consecutive rounds to determine who the best spellers were. These students had been selected in advance through a preliminary elimination process within their English classes.

While no one was eliminated in the first two rounds and the pupils collected points for themselves and their class, the last round was more difficult and our judge, Ms Tish, became stricter with each mistake. The remaining pupils were excellent and made spelling words like 'pronunciation', 'apostrophe', 'Plymouth' and 'thieves' look easy. Finally, it was down to the last two: Ayesha and Amir. The atmosphere in the cinema was palpable – 100 Year 5 pupils fell completely silent as the two finalists spelled their words, and then there was a roar of celebration from Class 5/1 when Ayesha won! She is the winner of this year's Year 5 Spelling Bee! Congratulations!

We would also like to congratulate Amir (Class 5/4) and Artem (Class 5/2) on taking second and third place respectively. Furthermore, Class 5/4 was crowned the best class, with Amir, Yusuf and Damian as its representatives.

Thank you to all the English teachers who prepared their students for this event, and congratulations to all the pupils who took part!

Mrs Mauthe & colleagues