GIIS Tokyo Campus conducted a school-level Spelling Bee competition on 12 February 2016. From classes 3 to 8, 33 students took part in the competition. These students were the winners of the class-level competition that was held on 20 November 2015.

Winner of the competition, VeenaLahari Venkatesh of Class 8

VeenaLahari Venkatesh of Class 8 emerged as the winner of 2015 GIIS Tokyo Campus, Spelling Bee Competition by correctly spelling bunkum. She will represent the school at the 7th Japan Times Spelling Bee competition, which will be held in March 2016.

Veena’s win was hard-fought with other students. The students of classes 3 and 4 stunned the audience when they correctly spelled words like: leitmotif, ecclesiastical, schnitzel, and insouciance.

This competition is intended to promote correct English usage in the students and increase their vocabularies. As a school champion, Veena also received a free one-year membership to Britannica Online for Kids (a $69.95 value).

As a part of preparing the students for the Spelling Bee competition, a list of 450 words, issued by the Scripps Spelling Bee, was issued to the students to memorise. The students were advised to make use of a dictionary, preferably the Merriam-Webster Dictionary ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/ ), in order to find the correct pronunciation of the words.