Provincial FINAL  -  Nathan Nicholls continues to spell his way across the State. 

Nathan Nicholls continues to spell his way across the State. 
Yesterday I had to go to Traralgon for the Gippspell Provincial Final.   The spelling started at 11:00 at the St Pauls Anglican Grammar School in the Salvation Army Chapel.

The grade five’s started and the shires that were represented were Bass Coast, Baw Baw, Casey- Cardinia, East Gippsland, Latrobe Valley, South Gippsland and Wellington.

Before they started the word provider went through all the rules which were pretty much the same as Korumburra.

Oscar Perri from Loch Primary School  was also representing South Gippsland and came fourth or fifth in the year 5’s. The winner was Daniel Smith Blakely from the Latrobe Valley shires.

Then I was on. At the start we were told where to sit according to alphabetical order. I was third.

When it was my turn I was really nervous but I spelt my first 6 words. Some of those words were vaccine and changeover.

In the seventh round I had ‘ineligible’, I knew how to spell it but when I started spelling I was thinking of eligible and I started off with an ‘e’ then tried to quickly change it to an ’i’ but I was too late so I was eliminated. At that stage there was only three people left and I thought I was a goner. Then unfortunately a girl spelt her word wrong so we knew the winner except we didn’t have a second so I had to go back up.    In the sudden death round I successfully spelt ‘miscellaneous’ and the girl was unlucky because she had a very weird French word and spelt it incorrectly.   So I came second and had to wait for the year 8’s to finish for the presentation.   During the year 7’s a lady asked me if I could answer a few questions. As it turned out she was from ABC News radio…. I was going to be on the radio.  After I finished the interview I heard that one of the year 7’s word was ‘symmetry’ which I had at Korumburra.

When the year 8’s finished the adjudicators congratulated everyone who came and thanked the sponsors who were PRIME TV, Baw Baw Shire, Triangle Trophies, St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School and the Macquarie Dictionary. Then the presentations occurred.  Since I was the runner up I was awarded with a trophy and a certificate. The winner’s were given everything I got plus a Macquarie Dictionary.

After that it was the end of an eventful day.

Gippspell Press Release – September 2008

Gippspell is a Gippsland-wide spelling competition open to all students in Year 5 to 8.  A voluntary program run by Gippsland teachers for Gippsland students, it encompasses all Gippsland Shires (which constitute the zone final areas) and includes Cardinia and Casey shires.

 In 2008, its fourth year of operation, we had 250 students from 80+ schools represent their schools in the seven zone finals.  Twenty-eight winners of zone finals met in Traralgon to compete for the title (as well as trophies and book prizes)   The 2008 winners  were:

Year 5
1st Daniel Smith Blakeley (Lumen Christie) (LC)
2nd Kyung Stewart (Cowwarr PS) (W)

Year 6
1st Clayton Gubbles (Beaconhills) (CC)
2nd Nathan Nicholls (Toora PS) (SG)

Year 7
1st Darcy McCartney (Nagle) (EG)
2nd Cassie Byrne (Gipps Grammar) (W)

Year 8
1st Sam Farmer (Lavalla) (LC)
2nd Jonty Simmons (GGS) (W)

The competition begins in May with school registrations.   In June the schools run internal competitions to select their year level champions (two per year level).  In August the Zone Finals are run, hosted by volunteer schools within each shire.  The Provincial Final is then held in September resulting in four Gippsland champions.

Feedback has been very positive with many schools already wanting to be involved again as well as interest from schools not previously involved.  Our ideal goal is to involve every school in Gippsland (and Bass Coast, Cardinia and further).  We are hoping that in 2008 we will have 100 schools represented.  This will be supported by the adding of Casey (following a request from a Berwick teacher who had been involved when at Pakenham) to the Cardinia Zone to create Casey/Cardinia.

 Thanks to the support of PRIME TV, which has provided effective frequent publicity, we have had strong support for the competition as well as for our sponsors.  We have also been part of the Innovations Australia program with multiple Gippsland radio interviews and featuring in the Innovations list published in the Business Review Weekly. We have also enjoyed the sponsorship of Baw Baw Shire and the direct support of its Development and Marketing Office.

 There is no comparable program in Gippsland.  What other program draws in students from as far apart as Orbost, Toora, Cowes, Berwick and Neerim South?  The only established spelling competition of any scale is based in Melbourne and is a commercial operation.  Programs which encourage intellectual competition rather than physical are all too rare.  As a student told one of our officials in 2007, “This is the only chance I’ll have to represent my school.”