By Dan J. Broadley

Wednesday 18^th March saw Manchester Metropolitan University packed out with hundreds of Year 7 pupils from across the North West taking part in the North West Regional Final of the Foreign Language Spelling Bee Competition.

The Routes into Languages North West team, Dr Sharon Handley, Yasmin Hussain and Karen Morrison, alongside the Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Social Science (HLSS) were proud to welcome the finest young pupils of the North West in French, Spanish and German at MMU. The pupils battled it out to see who would go on to represent the North West at the national final in Cambridge this summer.

A record breaking 12,000 pupils from 95 schools took part from across the North West, with over 75,000 taking part nationally. Dr Sharon Handley, the Dean of HLSS and Director of Routes into Languages said, “We were delighted to host the regional final at MMU and we are proud of the fact that the response from the North West schools has been the highest in the country. The performance of the pupils in previous years has been outstanding and this year was no exception.” Yasmin Hussain, Routes into Languages North West Project Manager, added, “This year we have achieved a new record in the North West, each year the competition attracts more pupils from the region. It is a fantastic competition. Every pupil is a winner just by taking part in it and developing their vocabulary in French, German and Spanish.”

“The ethos behind the spelling bee is to encourage young people to learn new languages. It encourages schools to take part through different stages; from class competition to whole schools to the regional. It fosters the love of languages from a very young age. A lot of effort by teachers, parents and pupils have gone in to this so anyone who gets to this stage are all winners.”

The competition was split into three languages; French, Spanish and German, and consisted of two rounds with four pupils chosen from each. The twelve finalists in the second round competed for winner and runner up prizes.

Dr Derek Bousfield, Head of the Department of Languages, Information and Communications presented the second round and the awards, and had this to say, “The final has been growing year up on year and as a result has been growing more and more difficult. Congratulations to everyone involved. Everyone here has made a huge achievement. I am looking at the future of communication and it fills me with pride. As Nelson Mandela once said: If you speak to a man in his own language, you speak to his heart.”

The Foreign Language Spelling Bee Competition saw the finest foreign language speakers of the next generation put on a great display of their linguistic talents. Congratulations to all the pupils who took part, what a fantastic achievement.

The twelves finalists are;

FRENCH

1^st place – Charlie Middleton, St Gabriels RC High School

2nd place – Anna Crayston, Tarporley High School

3rd place – Eleanor Huyton, St Augustine’s RC High School

4^th – Amir Chauhan, Bolton School

SPANISH

1^ST place – Smrutee Kandale, Sale Grammar School

2^nd place – Eloise Lonsdale, Westholme School

3^rd place – Jessica Hepburn, Litherland High School

4^th place – Huzaifa Umar, St James Church of England High School

GERMAN

1^ST place – Shraddha Ashok, Altrincham Grammar School for Girls

2^nd place – Tiffany Dyu, Wirral Grammar School for Girls

3^rd place – Cora Heyes, St Peters Catholic High School

4^th place – Charli Smith, Parklands High School

Anarcho-libertarian, Dan J Broadley, is a creative writing student at MMU and has hopes to become a novelist.