Somervale School's Year 7 students are taking part in a nationwide Spelling Bee contest to test their language skills.

Every year, 'Routes into Languages' organises a nationwide Spelling Bee contest for Year 7 students in three languages: Spanish, French and German. This year, Somervale's Modern Languages Department launched the contest with their Year 7 French groups.

The contest consists of four rounds: the Class Round, the School Round, the Regional Round and the National Round. Students receive a list of Spanish, French or

German words of which they have to learn the spelling. The list gets progressively longer with every round they compete in. All the words are based on the topics covered in their lessons. The students were said to be 'very excited and motivated'. Their teacher, Nina Malchiodi, said: "It's wonderful to see the classroom abuzz with the students' enthusiasm!"

The students have already participated in the Classroom Round from which there were six winners: Caine Gullick, Georgia Hawkins, Brady Gill, Harry Wilcox, Jenni Dwyer and Marta Bautista Jimenez.

These six students then competed in the School Round where there were two winners, Caine Gullick and Georgia Hawkins. Georgia stated: "I'm doing the Spelling Bee because it is something new and fun. I'm really enjoying it, because I get to spell in a completely different language." These two students will be going on to the Regional Round taking place at Norton Hill School.

Despite the knowledge of some tough competition from neighbouring schools, their teacher is confident of their abilities to progress further in the competition. Well done to the Year 7s for all their hard work and motivation and good luck to Caine and Georgia in their future rounds!