Beyond Language, Explore the World
As the applause and cheers faded in the lecture hall, the Sixth Spelling Bee at Hailiang International School concluded successfully on October 17th.
This six-year linguistic celebration served as an English exploration journey for all faculty and students. From the creative warm-up activities to the intense competition on stage, every moment shone with passion and growth.
The event celebrated students’ enthusiasm for English through creative activities and competitive rounds, showcasing strong vocabulary skills, teamwork, and the school’s commitment to innovative language learning.
Legacy and New Beginning
As a classic event in HIS, this year’s Spelling Bee was filled with warmth and tradition from the very start. Sarah, a member of last year’s champion team, took the stage alongside foreign teachers James and Dylan. Their energetic performance of the English song “Firework” instantly ignited the entire venue. This moment symbolised not only the passing of the torch but also the enduring spirit of English learning at HIS.
Strength Blossoms
This year’s competition continued its division into Group A (Basic) and Group B (Challenge), precisely matching students’ abilities across different proficiency levels. Notably, three Grade 11 students had already achieved outstanding IELTS scores of 7.5 among the Group B champion team!
During the First Round — the Repeating Bee — contestants focused intently, accurately capturing pronunciations and swiftly constructing the correct spellings. When Techin (Thailand) from Class G11-2 consecutively spelled over 30 challenging IELTS vocabulary words correctly, spontaneous applause erupted from the audience.
In the Third Round — Leading Bee — their robust vocabulary reserves enabled them to repeatedly pinpoint words swiftly using clues like “first letter + number of letters,” demonstrating language proficiency far exceeding their peers.
The Second Round — Acting Bee — proved especially entertaining. Participants conveyed clues through English explanations and physical acting, while their teammates intently observed and swiftly spelled answers. This process not only tested team synergy but also highlighted their practical English application skills.
Infinite Creativity
Since October 7th, pre-event activities filled the campus with the joy of learning English. Innovative formats encouraged more students to become active participants instead of bystanders.
In the “Word Mask” activity, students transformed favourite vocabulary into creative artworks: some used layered blues to form the wavy outline of “water,” while others painted vibrant worlds to express “colorful.” These unique masks served not only as entry passes but also as vehicles for expressing personal interpretations of words.
Beside the “Word Blind Box”, students drew cards labelled with difficulty levels, then guessed and spelled words on the spot. Cheers erupted when someone spelled a B-level word correctly. Accumulated points boosted support for chosen teams, transforming “learning” into an interactive game.
In the “Word Short Video”, teams of 2–4 collaborated to explain word origins and memorisation techniques within one minute: some demonstrated the meaning of “pigs might fly” through their daily life, while others illustrated the etymology of “sandwich” with animations. The best word short video drew continuous applause, revealing to many that “learning vocabulary can be this fun.”
These creative pre-event activities transformed vocabulary learning from a solitary exercise into a campus-wide celebration, drawing in students from all year groups.
Excellence Through Competitive Learning
When the team champions of Group B G11-2 and Group A G12-1, along with the six individual award winners, stood on the stage to receive their trophies and certificates, the audience burst into enthusiastic applause once again.
From the pre-competition preparations to the performance on the spot, what the students demonstrated was not only a solid vocabulary reserve, but also flexible language application skills and cross-cultural communication awareness.
The sixth Spelling Bee has come to an end, but the students’ passion for English and their curiosity about the world will continue to take root and grow on the campus. In the future, Hailiang International School will continue to use various language activities as carriers to make English teaching more closely aligned with students’ needs.
Behind these abilities lies the advanced English teaching concepts of HIS. Our school has always adhered to a stratified teaching model and designed differentiated courses for students with different English proficiencies.
We build a basic system of “vocabulary accumulation + quantitative testing” for foundation-level students, and create an improvement path of “in-depth reading + academic expression” for challenge-level students, introducing IELTS and British literature courses to guide students in exploring the cultural connotations behind the language.
The sixth Spelling Bee has come to an end, but the students’ passion for English and their curiosity about the world will continue to take root and grow on the campus.
In the future, Hailiang International School will continue to use various language activities as carriers, making English teaching more closely aligned with students’ needs and more in line with the goals of international talent cultivation, helping students use language as a bridge to reach a broader world.
and will keep this linguistic appointment again!
