1. Local Knockout Heat Format
Each local knockout heat is a live oral spelling contest and comprises two spelling challenges. All teams will compete in each challenge.
The challenges are:
a) Spelling Play-Off
b) Quick-Fire Challenge
The winning team of each The Times Spelling Bee Championship local knockout heat will be the team with the highest combined score –after adding together the scores from both the Spelling Play-Off and the Quick-Fire Challenge.
2. Spelling Bee event
2a Spelling Play-Off
During the Spelling Play-Off, each contestant will be asked to spell a word. Each correct answer will gain one point for their team. The Challenge will begin with Contestant A/Team 1 being asked their first word, followed by Contestant A/Team 2, Contestant A/Team 3 and so on until Contestant A in all teams has attempted to spell their first word. Then each contestant B will be asked to spell a word in turn followed by Contestants C. No contestants will be eliminated in the first round even if they misspell their word. However, once the second round of words starts, contestants will be eliminated for incorrect spellings. The words will increase in difficulty as the challenge progresses.
Scoring
Each correct spelling earns the team one point. The individual winner of this Challenge will be the last contestant who has not been eliminated and who has correctly spelt a word in a round. If all the contestants misspell a word in a round, the round will start again. The individual winner may or may not be a member of the top scoring team. Teams will only be given points for correctly spelling words – no additional points will be awarded to the winner.
Time allowed
Each contestant has 30 seconds to start to spell their word. The clock will not be suspended if the contestant asks for further information about the word. If a contestant has started spelling when the 30 seconds runs out, the contestant will be given a reasonable time to finish.
2b Quick-Fire Challenge
This is a challenge to find out which team can spell the most number of words in two minutes. Prior to the start of the challenge, teams will be asked to choose the level of word difficulty – hard, medium or easy words - they want to attempt to spell. Hard words spelt correctly win more points than medium and easy words – see scoring below. For each word, teams must nominate which team member is to spell the word. The order of the teams in the Quick-Fire Challenge will be by random selection.
Scoring
Depending on the level of word difficulty teams have selected to answer, points will be given for each correct spellings as follows:
- Hard words (3 points)
- Medium words (2 points)
- Easy words (1 point)
Teams may ‘pass’ on a word and choose not to spell it, in which case the Spellmaster will announce the next word to be spelt.
Time allowed
If a word has been announced but not spelt when the two minutes runs out, teams will be given 30 seconds to spell the word. Teams may ask for further information about the word, but the clock will not be suspended.
School Team with the highest score wins.
The winning team of each local knockout heat will be the team with the highest score – after combining the scores from both the Spelling Play-Off and the Quick-Fire Challenge .
If there is a tie – teams will be asked in turn to spell tie-break words on an elimination basis, until a single team remains. Teams can choose which contestant answers each tie-break word. As with the Spelling Play-Off, a team must correctly spell a word in a round to be the winner – if all the teams misspell a word in a round, the round will start again.
The winning team of each local knockout heat will be invited to attend the Championship Semi-Finals, staged in May. Winning school teams from the Semi-Finals will be invited to compete in the Grand Final which will be held in London in June. The winning team at the Grand Final will be awarded the title: The Times Spelling Bee UK School Champion.
3. Championship Adjudication
Each local knockout heat will be adjudicated by a judge. Where possible, this judge will be supplied by HarperCollins, official dictionary of The Times Spelling Bee. In contests where HarperCollins is not able to provide a judge, an adjudicator will be available via telephone for consultation and to resolve appeals.
The judge will oversee the spelling contest, scoring, adherence to the Spelling Bee Championship rules, and the identification of the winning team. The judge’s initial decision on the spelling of a word may be appealed, but in all cases the decision of a HarperCollins adjudicator, whether given in person or via telephone, is final. For rules on disqualification and adjudication appeals, see points 7 and 11.
4. Eligibility of School team contestants
School teams must comprise full time pupils: three contestants and one reserve who are in Year 7 (or equivalent) and aged 11 or 12 years old as at 1 September 2008. The Times reserves the right to review the eligibility of team members. Any team member or reserve found to be in breach of the age rules for participation, or contravening the spirit of the Championship, may be disqualified before or during the Championship and will have to forfeit any prizes gained through participation.
5. Attendance at Spelling Bee Championship Events
5a. All members of each team must attend the Championship contest heats, including the reserve student. All teams must be accompanied by a member of staff to supervise the participants.
5b. School uniform (if applicable) must be worn.
5c. Each school may bring a total of no more than ten people, including team members and teacher, to each Championship event. Other guests may be family, friends, colleagues or pupils.
5d. Teams, school staff and guests must each bring a completed entrance pass to gain entry to the local knockout heats.
5e. The organisers of the local knockout heats reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone not carrying an entrance pass.
5f. Special Needs: Schools should have informed The Times in advance if any pupils have special needs, such as wheelchair accessibility. The Times may in their discretion amend the rules to accommodate medical conditions in speech, hearing or movement. Rule changes will be for the purpose of making reasonable adjustments to enable any pupil to participate. Rule changes may be applied only to the relevant pupil.
5g. It is expected that schools will cover the travel costs of its team, accompanying member of teaching staff and supporters to attend each
Championship event. If, in exceptional circumstances, a school is unable to cover travel costs of the school team and accompanying member of teaching staff, which will mean a school team is not able to attend a local knockout heat, or if successful, a Semi-Final and Grand Final, the Head Teacher should write to The Times explaining the circumstances. Applications for a travel bursary will be considered only in exceptional circumstances and on an individual case by case basis.
6. Rules for Team Spellers
6a. School teams should comprise the same three contestants throughout the local knockout heat. However, should a contestant fall ill during the event (or, due to some emergency, request to leave the knockout heat) it will be at the discretion of the judge to allow the reserve member to join the team as the contestant’s replacement for the remainder of the local knockout heat. No correspondence will be entered into in respect of any decision by the judge or The Times in relation to substitution.
6b. All contestants’ mobile phones must be switched off during the event.
6c. When spelling words, contestants must face the judge and should speak clearly with sufficient volume to be audible. If an adjudicator is unable to clearly hear a letter spelled by a contestant, the contestant will be given a single warning to speak up, and any misheard letters will thereafter be counted as a misspell.
6d. Once a contestant has begun to spell the word, they must continue spelling the word. They cannot retract the spelling, or repeat or alter the letters or sequence of letters from those first uttered, otherwise no points will be awarded.
6e. Prior to starting to spell a word, contestants may request the Spellmaster to:
- give the word’s definition
- explain the part of speech (eg: noun, verb etc)
- repeat the word
It is the contestant’s prerogative to request or not to request this information. Contestants may not ask for this information once they have begun to spell the word. Contestants may only ask for each item of information to be provided once per word. The clock will not be suspended while the information is being given. Contestants may not ask for any information other than the items listed above.
6f. Contestants must spell the British spelling of a word (eg: not center for centre; not color for colour) otherwise no points will be awarded. US or Canadian variant spellings will not be considered valid.
6g. Contestants may not confer on how to spell a word at any time, or clues sought from the audience or any other source, otherwise no points will be awarded and teams risk disqualification, even if the contestants are not currently competing.
6h. Contestants must remain quiet when not spelling. Any contestant causing a disruption will be warned, and if they or any other team member causes a second disruption, the team may be disqualified.
6i. If a competitor runs out of time before starting to spell the word, then no points will be awarded. However if there are extraordinary circumstances which prevent a contestant from spelling a word within the required time, the adjudicator may in his or her discretion allow a respell. This, for instance, may include another contestant being disruptive.
6j. In the Spelling Play-Off challenge contestants are encouraged, but not required, to say their word before spelling it and again after spelling it ie: “Say it, Spell it, Say it”. Contestants will not be penalised, or have any points taken off if they forget, but a contestant will not be entitled to appeal a misspell on the basis that they had misheard the word. A contestant may only appeal a misspell on the basis that they misheard the word if they followed the “Say it, Spell it, Say it” format AND they correctly spelt the word they think they heard, ie if they misspell the word they think they heard, no appeal will be allowed.
6k. Each contestant has 30 seconds to start to spell their word. The clock will not be suspended if the contestant asks for further information about the word. If a contestant has started spelling when the 30 seconds runs out, the contestant will be given a reasonable time to finish.
6l. In the Quick-Fire Challenge the teams will nominate which contestant will spell each word on a word by word basis. As soon as any team member says “pass”, the Spellmaster will announce the next word. Teams may not elect to spell a word once any team member has elected to pass that word.
6m. If a word has been announced but not spelt when the two minutes runs out, teams will be given 30 seconds to spell the word. Teams may ask for further information about the word, but the clock will not be suspended.
6n. In the Quick-Fire Challenge if the contestant is still spelling out a word when the two minutes allowed is up, the contestant can either continue to complete the spelling of the word, or start afresh and spell the complete word uninterrupted. The contestant will then have 30 seconds to spell the final word.
6o. Each school is responsible for providing adequate and appropriate supervision of the team at all Championship events. The Times will not be responsible for supervising teams at any time (also see rules for audience and rules for disqualification).
7. Rules for Disqualification
Teams may be disqualified by the judge if:
7a. Team contestants have not turned off their mobile phone after having been given a warning.
7b. The judge is satisfied there has been an incident of cheating.
7c. The judge is suspicious that cheating is occurring (of whatever form), and after having given the team a warning, the judge believes cheating still to be occurring.
7d. Team contestants (or their guests) don’t sit quietly during any of the Challenges and if in anyway they attempt to disrupt the progress of the contest and after having been given a warning, the behaviour continues (from any member of the team or their guests).
7e. The judge is suspicious members of the audience are influencing the accuracy of contestant spelling by whatever means. The judge will give a warning that such behaviour should stop, but if the judge believes this behaviour to have continued after the warning, the school’s team will be disqualified.
7f. A team will be disqualified if they arrive following the close of registration. A team will only be deemed to have arrived once all four team members and their supervising teacher have arrived. Registration for morning events will close at 9:45am, and will close at 1:15pm for afternoon events.
7g. In contests where HarperCollins have not been able to supply a judge, the live judge reserves the right to confer with a HarperCollins adjudicator via telephone on any and all disqualification matters. The decision reached by the live judge and the HarperCollins adjudicator is final.
8. Rules for the audience
8a. All mobile phones must be turned off during the event.
8b. No attempts should be made in any way to influence the contestants spelling of words (See rules of team disqualification, 7c and 7d.)
8c. Guests in the audience should sit quietly during the Challenges and not in anyway attempt to disrupt the progress of the local knockout heat.
9. Word List
9a. Words used in the Spelling Bee are supplied by HarperCollins Publishers. Every effort has been made to ensure the Spelling Bee Word List is appropriate to the age level of the contestants. Words with homophones, or variant spellings have been excluded wherever possible to prevent confusion.
9b. The Spelling Bee Word List has been derived from the Collins School Dictionary. Special consideration has been given to vocabulary appropriate for 11-12 year olds. A supplementary list of difficult, tie-breaking words has been extracted from the Collins English Dictionary (CED).
9c. There is a word list for each local knockout heat. This list for each local knockout heat comprises a random selection of words of varying word difficulty from the total Word List.
9d. Words pronounced in the Spelling Play-Off challenge will increase in difficulty as the Play Off progresses.
10. The Judge
10a. The judge will uphold the rules of the Spelling Bee and determine whether a word has been spelled correctly. Any appeals against the judge’s decisions must be made immediately after a word has been ruled as misspelled or correct (see Rule 11 Appeals). For the Quick-Fire Challenge , words will only be ruled as correct or misspelled at the end of the two minutes. Appeals will not be allowed if the next round has commenced.
10b. The final authority for the accuracy of the information provided to the Spelling Bee is the Collins English Dictionary. No other dictionary may be used as evidence of spelling (including homophones and spelling variants), pronunciation, definition, or part of speech for the purpose of the Spelling Bee.
10c. If the judge believes the Spellmaster has mispronounced a word, it is the judge’s duty to point this out, preferably before the contestant spells the word. The judge will then ask the Spellmaster to re-pronounce the word correctly, and spelling will continue. If the contestant has already spelled the word before the judge can point out the error, the contestant will be given a replacement word (unless the spelling was correct).
10d. Every effort has been made to avoid words with homophones and variant spellings (Alternatives). The Collins English Dictionary is the final authority for these Alternatives. In the unlikely event that a word on the List has an allowed alternative and a contestant misspells a word because s/he has spelled its alternative correctly, the contestant will be awarded the full points.
10e. If a word has an allowed Alternative, and the contestant misspells the Alternative, no points are awarded, and no replacement word will be given.
10f. Only British variant spellings are allowed. If a word’s only alternative is an exclusively U.S. or Canadian variant spelling and the contestant spells this correctly (for example c-e-n-t-e-r for centre), no points are awarded, and no replacement word will be given.
11. Appeals
11a. The judge, whether provided by HarperCollins or not, will rule on whether a word has been spelled correctly. Any appeals to a judge’s initial decision must be made as soon as the word has been ruled as misspelled or ruled as spelled. For the Quick-Fire Challenge , words will only be ruled as correct or misspelled at the end of the two minutes. Appeals will not be allowed if the next round has commenced.
11b. Only decisions on the spelling of a word may be challenged. Contestants and school representatives may not challenge decisions about eligibility, disqualification, or the accuracy of the Collins English Dictionary.
11c. Only contestants, or members of staff supervising school teams may appeal against the judge’s decision. Guests may not appeal any spelling decisions.
11d. In contests where HarperCollins has been unable to supply a judge, the live judge may consult with a HarperCollins adjudicator via telephone regarding a disputed spelling. However, such consultation is not necessary. The judge’s second decision on the spelling of a disputed word is final.
11e. If an appeal that the Spellmaster has mispronounced a word is upheld by the judge or a HarperCollins adjudicator and the contestant has already spelled the word before the error has been pointed out, the contestant will be given a replacement word (unless the spelling was correct).
11f. The final authority regarding the pronunciation of a word is the Collins English
Dictionary. No other dictionary will be regarded as evidence of pronunciation for the purposes of the Spelling Bee.
11g. If the judge or a HarperCollins adjudicator rules that the word was, in fact, pronounced correctly, no replacement word will be given, and no points will be awarded for any misspelled words.
11h. Every effort has been made to eliminate words with homophones and variant spellings (Alternatives) from the Word List. If the judge discovers, on the basis of consultation with the Collins English Dictionary or a HarperCollins adjudicator, that a word has an allowed homophone or variant spelling, and that the contestant has spelled this alterative correctly, the contestant will receive the full points for one correctly spelled word..
11i. If, after consultation with the Collins English Dictionary or a HarperCollins adjudicator, the judge discovers a word has an allowed Alternative, and the contestant misspells this Alternative, no points are awarded.
11j. All appeals will be resolved on the day.
11k. The judge will use their discretion as to whether a replacement word should be given or the chance for the word to be respelled in the unlikely event there are exceptional circumstances or distractions which might have affected the contestant’s performance.
12. Appeal Protocol
In order to minimise disruption to the pace of the local knockout heat and the concentration of the spellers, the judge is under no obligation to stop the Spelling Bee in order to discuss with contestants or school representatives an appeal or denied appeal. The judge’s decision is final and is subject neither to review or reversal by HarperCollins or The Times.
13. Notice of rules
A copy of the Spelling Bee rules has been made available to every participating school before the launch of the local events.
14. HarperCollins and The Times
HarperCollins and The Times reserve the right to amend the rules and terms and conditions of the Championship at any stage. The terms and conditions of the Championship are available to download from the Spelling Bee website: www.timesspellingbee.co.uk.
15. All correspondence
All correspondence and queries in relation to attending the Championship should be directed to: The Times Spelling Bee, 1 Virginia Street London E98 1GE or email: spellingbee@timesonline.co.uk or telephone: 020 8973 0046.
16. Championship
Championship events may be postponed or cancelled in exceptional circumstances. Schools will be notified of any cancellation or postponement as soon as reasonably practical.