Record Spelling Bee numbers as teachers fight for literacy basics
Australian teachers have rallied behind foundation literacy, smashing the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee’s opening week record as experts warn ‘curriculum creep’ is squeezing out the essentials
READING LEVEL: GREEN
Australian teachers joined forces this week, flying the flag for foundation literacy* as experts warn “curriculum creep*” is crowding out the basics.
But the nation’s educators have pushed back, with the teacher-led Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee setting a new day one record, posting a 58 per cent jump from 6,572 in 2025 to 10,425 student registrations on Monday in Kids News’ free and fun spelling and computing activity.
Critical skills like reading, writing and spelling underpin everything from a child’s future academic success to their behaviour. While teachers strive to advance kids from this core, experts say they are always expected to do more – and other – things.
Australian Primary Principals Association president Angela Falkenberg suggested schools were continually asked to tackle areas beyond the curriculum, often without the resources, expertise* or time to do it well.
“We need to stop adding to teachers’ plates while simultaneously questioning whether they’re doing enough,” she said.
“Primary schools are extraordinarily adaptive, but they cannot continually absorb new responsibilities without consequence.
“We should trust teachers to make professional decisions about how best to engage their students in the Australian curriculum”.
Social researcher Mark McCrindle said educators have too much on their plate.
“Whether it’s societal problems or new challenges, it’s always, ‘Well, let’s get that into schools, let’s get the teachers to teach that’. And so there’s curriculum creep, where they’re now teaching water safety or animal welfare or whatever it may be,” he said.
“It just keeps adding to their load and this is the curriculum creep challenge, (when) numeracy, literacy and other foundational areas of education get squeezed out.”
Distinguished Professor Pamela Snow of the School of Education at La Trobe University said literacy remained the gateway of all learning.
“Low literacy casts a long shadow across the lifespan,” she said, adding that it became harder for children who were behind on reading, writing and spelling to catch up after Year 3.
Prof Snow acknowledged that the curriculum was “already very busy.”
“We all need to check ourselves when we’re talking about how much it’s reasonable for schools to teach in a day,” she said. “But there needs to be protected time for literacy and numeracy,” she said.
Teachers’ push back to foundation literacy set the opening week of the PM’s Spelling Bee abuzz.
Since the 6th annual Bee opened on July 20, over 1800 teachers have already registered more than 27,300 students, in another new record for the free online spelling competition for Australian students in Years 3-8. Run by free classroom news site Kids News, the Bee is looking to break last year’s school round record of 82,712 students.
Research by Adjunct* Associate Professor Tessa Daffern at La Trobe’s SOLAR Lab School of Education suggests that spelling ability is more significant than grammar or punctuation in predicting a student’s quality of writing.
“Strong spelling … (enables) students to become confident, capable communicators who can use language effectively across all learning areas and in every context of life,” she said.
Prof Daffern said strong literacy skills shaped a student’s path long after primary school as “one of the most powerful levers for reducing disadvantage*.”
“Literacy is a life skill that shapes educational, social and economic outcomes,” she said.
Registrations and the school round of the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee remain open until 5pm AEST on Friday 22 August. Visit spelling-bee.com.au, kidsnews.com.au
WATCH THE VIDEO
POLL
GLOSSARY
- foundation literacy: the ability to read, write and spell
- curriculum creep: the ongoing challenge facing today’s educators, where there is a constant pull to keep adding more content to curriculums
- expertise: a high level of knowledge or skill
- adjunct: a professor employed by a college or university for a specific purpose or length of time, often part-time
- disadvantage: a condition or situation that causes problems, especially one that causes something or someone to be less successful than other things or people
EXTRA READING
PM builds bridge to Spelling Bee
PM leaves Bee winners in stitches
Bee spelling success pretty sweet
QUICK QUIZ
- What was the percentage jump in student registrations in the PM’s Spelling Bee from last year?
- How many teachers had registered to take part in the PM’s Spelling Bee by the end of the first week?
- Approximately how many students had they registered by week’s end?
- After what school year does it become harder for children to catch up if they’re behind in spelling, reading and writing?
- What do experts say is crowding out the basics in classrooms?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. News: condensed
Identify the most important pieces of information in this article and write a condensed version of it using 50 words or less.
Draw a picture or diagram to support your condensed news story.
Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Science
2. Extension
Compare your condensed news story with a classmate. Did you both include the same information or are your stories quite different? Discuss your choices and then work together to create a final condensed version of the story that you both agree tells the important parts that a reader would need or want to know.
Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English
VCOP ACTIVITY
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word. They are often found describing a noun. Start by looking at the words before the nouns.
Search for all the adjectives you can find in the article.
Did you find any repeat adjectives or are they all different?
Extension:
Pick three of your favourite adjectives from the text and put them in your own sentences to show other ways to use them.
Have you used any in your writing?
ABOUT THE BEE
- Registrations and the school round are now open in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee, a free digital competition for students in Year 3-8.
- Supervised by teachers, students compete at their school in three levels: Green level for Year 3-4, Orange level for Year 5-6 and Red level for Year 7-8.
- They get 30 randomly selected words from their competition level and have 25 seconds to type each answer. The students with the most correct words in the fastest time progress to finals.
- Teachers can register and supervise their students right up until Friday 21 August, when the school round ends.
- State and territory finals will be held August 31 to September 4 and the national finals on September 9-10.
- The national champion in each age group wins a trip to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister, an iPad, HarperCollins book pack and a $1000 voucher for their school.
- Details: spelling-bee.com.au and kidsnews.com.au