Meet this year’s Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee champions

They came, they spelled, they conquered*.

The national champions of the 2022 Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee have been crowned after smashing out words many adults would struggle to know the meaning of, let alone spell.

Zachary Cheng took the honours in the Years 7-8 group, ticking off words including astrakhan and psephology to score 28/30 in a speedy 1min39s. For the record, astrakhan is the black or grey curly fur from the skins of lambs and psephology is the study of how people vote in elections.

The Year 7 student from Haileybury College in Victoria said he was pleasantly surprised by his victory after having to deal with a couple of curveballs* in the National Final.

“I guessed one or two of the words and didn’t expect to get them correct,” Zachary, 13, admitted. “But they were educated guesses because I read a lot. I read almost every day for an hour at least and that helps with my vocabulary.”

Perth student Ozi Egesi scored a perfect 30/30 in 1min32s in the Years 5-6 group, despite tricky words like baize (a green woollen material resembling felt) and adenoids (lymph nodes in the back of the throat behind the nose).

Ozi, 11, who is in Grade 5 at Providence Christian College, said his lifelong love of spelling and reading prepared him for the Spelling Bee.

“I learnt to spell from a young age. My mum would read with me for long hours in the study and she’d be giving me spelling words to practise, I wasn’t even at school yet,” he said.

Ozi, who also loves sport and plays guitar and piano, said he was confident he’d do well after making the State/Territory Finals in last year’s competition.

“I thought that since I’d had some experience I might be able to do better but I didn’t expect to win. I am really proud of myself,” he said.

Fellow Western Australian Joanne Lee, 10, finished on top of the Years 3-4 group, scoring 29/30 in 1min19s.

Her only stumble came with “vespers” (a service of evening prayer), a word she’d not heard before.

The Grade 4 student from Bull Creek Primary School said she loved competing in the Spelling Bee for the first time, despite some nerves.

“I felt really scared for the National Final but I just tried not to think about it too much and once I started I was okay,” she said.

She also went into the competition well prepared.

“I read a lot of books and my mum helped me to practise at home. She asked me words and I’d write them down whenever we had time,” she said.

The national competition, which attracted a record field of 61,224 students, also produced two runners-up in each age group: two from South Australia, and one each from NSW, Queensland, WA and Victoria.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese congratulated the winners and runners-up.

“You’ve been up against some very tough competition, not to mention some of the curlier words the English language has to offer – and you’ve come through with flying colours,” Mr Albanese said.

“What you’ve done is no small feat, so you can take great pride in your achievement. Spelling is one of the great keys that can open up the world, and you’ve shown that you can handle that key with aplomb*.

“Take a bow. You’ve well and truly earned this.”

It is the second year News Corp Australia and Kids News have run the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee.

News Corp’s community ambassador* Penny Fowler said the competition aimed to encourage a love of learning and boost childhood literacy.

“Congratulations to all the children who competed,” she said. “We hope you enjoyed the competition and discovered how much fun learning and rising to new challenges can be.”

The national champs will head off to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister later this year. They also each score an iPad and HarperCollins book pack, plus a $1000 voucher for their school.

NATIONAL FINAL TOP 10

GLOSSARY

• conquered: defeated, overcame, took control
• curveballs: something such as questions or events that are surprising or unexpected, and therefore difficult to deal with
• aplomb: to show calmness and confidence in a tricky situation
• ambassador: person who speaks on behalf of an organisation, community or country

EXTRA READING

PM spells out importance of the Bee

No mistaking author’s support for Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee champs blitz PM

Australia’s best young spellers revealed

QUICK QUIZ

1. What level of the Spelling Bee did Zachary win?
2. What score did Zachary get in the national final?
3. What does Ozi believe prepared him for the Spelling Bee?
4. Which school does Joanne go to?
5. What does Prime Minister Albanese say spelling is a key to?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Spelling test
Work with a partner and test each other on the following 20 words from the Grade 5/6 practice words list from the Spelling Bee website. (You can find a full list and different levels HERE)

Correct your partner’s answers and give them a score out of 20. Look at the words you both got incorrect and see if you can articulate why you didn’t get it correct (maybe you’ve never seen the word, or it is spelt differently to how it sounds etc.)

VCOP ACTIVITY
Vocabulary recycle
There is some vivid vocabulary being used in the article, and I am not just talking about the glossary words. Go through the article and highlight the high-level language that you are impressed by in yellow.

See if you can borrow two of these “wow words” to reuse in your own way.

Remember vocabulary is a great way to connect with the audience, but you need to think about who your audience is so you make great word choices.

Who will the audience be in your recycled sentences?