Format

The Competition
Bee part of it!

The aim of The Times Spelling Bee Championship is to make spelling fun and give teachers the chance to discover, nurture and promote the best of Britain’s young spelling talent.

  • • All schools from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are invited to enter a team.
  • • Each school’s team consists of four pupils
  • • All four pupils take part in the online local heats
  • • In the semi-finals and Grand Final, one player will be a reserve
  • • Every team member must be a full-time pupil who will turn 12 years old between September 1 2011 and August 31 2012.

Format of the Spelling Bee online heats
The online heats for The Times Spelling Bee Championship will involve all four team players.

The format of the online heats will challenge all team members to spell words until each gets one wrong. Once the last player standing misspells, the team score will be revealed.
Your team scores will be put into the league table for your school’s region. The top ten teams in each region go forward to the semi-finals.

Teachers responsible for registered teams will be given full details of how to set up an online event.

All four team players will play online simultaneously, using a keyboard to type in words. The new rules and regulations ensure that the Spelling Bee is a test of spelling skills, not keyboard skills.


The Online Spelling Play-Off
All four contestants in your team access the online Spellling Bee and are taken through the processes for their online heat. Players will be given test rounds before they begin. Correct spellings gain points. Incorrect spellings result in a player being eliminated. Online, players will stay in the competition for three rounds before elimination starts to take place.

The heat continues until all four players have been eliminated.


Ask for the definition
If they’re unsure of the word, players may ask for its definition and for the word to be spoken again. This information will be requested by buttons marked Repeat Word and Definition. This must be requested before they start to spell.


Time limits
In the online Spelling Play-off, contestants will have two minutes to input their spelling. The two minutes starts as soon as the player inputs the first character of the word. Once a player has started to spell a word they must continue and cannot retract the spelling or alter the letters from those first spoken.


Important notice
All online heats will be monitored. There will be controls to ensure that players cannot use spellcheck, which will be disabled, as is the backspace function. Teachers will be able to contact the Spelling Bee administrators should any technical malfunction arise.

HarperCollins provide all words in The Times Spelling Bee using The Collins School Dictionary as the authorised reference. All spellings are UK spellings (not US). The final authority for adjudication during the 2012 events will be the Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged.
Teachers are advised to read the full Terms and Conditions.
If you have any queries about the online local heats, please email your questions to spellingbee@rapportgroup.com.


Format of the live Spelling Bee semi-finals and Grand Final
In the semi-finals and Grand Final, all teams take part in two spelling challenges: Spelling Play-off and Quick Fire Challenge. The winning team will be the one with the highest combined score from both challenges.


The Spelling Play-Off
Three contestants from each team take it in turns to spell a word. If they get it right, they gain two points. If they get it wrong, they are eliminated.

The round continues until just one player remains and that player is awarded the Last Player Standing award.


Say it, spell it, say it
During the Spelling Play-off, contestants are asked to say the word they’ve been given, spell it and then say it again. (This doesn’t apply in the Quick-Fire Challenge)


Ask for the definition
If they’re unsure of the word, players may ask for its definition, the part of speech, (noun, verb etc) and for the word to be spoken aloud again. This information must be requested before they start to spell.


Time limits
In the Spelling Play-off, contestants will have 30 seconds to spell a word. The 30 seconds start as soon as the player says the word for the first time. Once a player has started to spell a word they must continue and cannot retract the spelling or alter the letters from those first spoken.


The Quick-Fire Challenge
The aim here is for the team to spell as many words as they can in two minutes. They choose the level of word difficulty they’d like to attempt – easy, medium or hard – which earn them one, two or three points respectively. Team members take it in turns to spell the words they are given and can pass on any word they’re unsure about. Teams can switch in their reserve player for this challenge.


Adjudication
There will be a Spellmaster at each live event who will give the words to the contestants. The Spellmaster will be supported by a judge appointed by HarperCollins, publisher of the official dictionary of The Times Spelling Bee 2012. The judge will oversee all aspects of accuracy, adherence to rules and correct pronunciation. The judge’s decision is final.

HarperCollins provide all words in The Times Spelling Bee using The Collins School Dictionary as the authorised reference. All spellings are UK spellings (not US). The final authority for adjudication during the 2012 events will be the Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged.
Teachers are advised to read the full Terms and Conditions.
If you have any queries about the semi-finals or Grand Final, please email your questions to spellingbee@rapportgroup.com.




MARCH 2012
Local heats take place online

MAY, 2012
Schools successful in Local Heats will proceed to the Semi-Finals

JUNE, 2012
Grand Final in London