A young student from Westport will be studying her dictionary and fine-tuning her pronunciation skills in the coming months after being crowned the county’s spelling bee champ and winning a place in the provincial spelling bee final.
Maja Tkaczyk, from Scoil Phádraig, won the title at the Eason Mayo County Bee Heat.
Maja will now go on to take part in the provincial spelling bee competition in June, where she will be seeking a place in the national final to battle it out and be crowned the nation’s top speller.
More than 1,000 schools from all 32 counties have entered the competition this year.
According to Catherine Cahill, brand manager at Eason, the competition is now in its fourth year.
“Spelling is a fantastic way to open up the world of learning to children in a fun way, and create the building blocks to support a lifetime of reading and literacy,” she said.
RTÉ’s 2FM is once again supporting the event. Ryan Tubridy, presenter, said the competition last year was “brilliant fun”.
“We at Tubridy on 2fm are thrilled to be a part of it again this year. We met some fantastic kids along the way who could out-spell many of us, and with record numbers getting involved this year the challenge is going to be even more exciting,” Mr Tubridy added.
