Oakville Public School Year 4 student Aarav Prajapati was the Hawkesbury’s sole representative at this year’s NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee state finals, earning one of just 34 spots in the junior division.
Aarav qualified through the online regional finals in August, securing a place at the Q Theatre in Penrith for his state finals debut on Friday, 6 November. Around 210,000 students took part in school spelling bees across NSW this year, with just 68 reaching the junior and senior state finals.
Finalists began with words from lists supplied by Macquarie Dictionary before moving on to words they had not been given to practise. The junior field included Year 3 student Layla Clayton from Bungwahl Public School, the division’s only returning finalist, and Year 2 student Oliver Reid from Tallimba Public School, the youngest finalist across both divisions.
Aarav speaks Punjabi at home and was among 23 finalists who speak a language other than English at home. Together, those students represented 16 language groups.
The competition began in 2004 with 431 NSW public schools. This year, more than 1,070 took part, and half of the state finalists came from regional NSW.
More information is available on The Arts Unit’s NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee page.
