Terms & Conditions
The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee 2011
The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee is a spelling competition that is intended to foster a greater understanding of the English language. It is not intended to be a replacement or substitute for any part of a school’s curriculum, nor are there any promises or guarantees given with regard to any learning outcomes or changes in an individual’s academic performance as a result of participating in this competition.
The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee is being conducted for the enjoyment and benefit of the Queensland schools by News Queensland, with the assistance of major sponsors, the Queensland State Government Department of Education, Capilano Honey, HarperCollins, Dreamworld and WOW Sight & Sound.
The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee is only available to Queensland Residents.
The collection of personal details for The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee will not be used for any other purpose.
The Spelling Bee involves several stages through which students must advance in order to be eligible to participate in the Grand Final, to be held at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast on Wednesday, October 05, 2011.
The preliminary stages of The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee will be conducted online, to be accessed at home and/or in the classroom via a dedicated website couriermail.com.au/spellingbee, culminating in a Grand Final at Dreamworld, which will require personal attendance by the finalist/s.
There is no entry fee to participate in The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee however; all entrants must have in place the appropriate computer equipment and internet connection at home and/or at school, in order to participate.
ELIGIBILITY TO ENTER THE SPELLING BEE
The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee is open to all students enrolled at all registered Queensland schools in the following grade categories:
• Grades 1 - 3
• Grades 4 – 7
• Grades 8 – 12
Participants must be registered by either parent or teacher. Registration for students is open until July 31, 2011.
News Queensland may, at its discretion, ask to see proof of identity and/or age of any contestant, and in the event that such proof is not forthcoming and/or contradicts or otherwise does not support any previous declarations that may have been made directly by the entrant, (and/or on their behalf), we reserve the right to disqualify that entrant at our discretion.
Students who are currently undertaking Home Schooling are permitted to play spelling challenges and be eligible to win weekly prizes but are not eligible for the Grand Final.
Children of employees of News Queensland and children of employees of the Sponsors of The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee are able to play the Spelling Bee game but are not eligible to win any prizes.
All students who register to participate in The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee, either by a parent or teacher, must have permission to do so by a parent/guardian/carer.
It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian/carer or their school representative to provide and maintain the necessary computer equipment and internet access to The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee.
THE COURIER-MAIL SPELLING BEE WILL BE CONDUCTED IN THREE SECTIONS
(1) ONLINE SPELLING CHALLENGES
Grade categories:
• Grades 1-3
• Grades 4-7
• Grades 8-12
To enable all students to become familiar with the concept of a Spelling Bee and the types of words that they might be asked to spell, the Spelling Bee website will be open for challenge tests from May 03, 2011.
During this period, students may practise their spelling against a computer-generated random test, with words drawn from a list that is appropriate to their age group.
Challenge tests may be taken at home independently by individual students, or as a class activity, at the discretion of the class teacher.
Challengers who participate in these challenge tests will be eligible to win random draw prizes.
The results of these challenge tests may contribute to the decision- making in the event of a tie in the semi final.
SCORING FOR ONLINE SPELLING CHALLENGE
Your score is calculated by the number of words spelt correctly and the time period to complete the test. The formula used to score is the number of words correct times ten/the number of minutes taken.
For example:
Answer all ten words correctly in 1 minute your score would be 100.
Answer all ten words correctly in 30 seconds your score would be 200.
When playing the single player mode in the Competition the timer allows the student 1 minute to complete each word. Due to the nature of the Multiplayer Game modes the complete game must be finished within 100 seconds, or 10 seconds on the timer to answer each word.
This is to encourage rapid game play and ‘competition’ between students playing against each other.
It also allows for a shorter time period to wait if one opponent fails to finish the game before the scores are calculated. The semi-final will still allow 1 minute to answer each word under test conditions as this will be a single player game.
(2) SEMI-FINAL
All registered schools will be encouraged to nominate five of their top spellers in each category to undergo a semi-final test under exam conditions, supervised by the school Principal or nominated teacher/s. This Semi-Final will need to be conducted on a specified date to be advised. Inability to participate on the nominated date will result in an automatic forfeit of the semi-final position. The results of this qualifying semi-final will be assessed by The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee adjudicators.
The top five finalists per age group throughout Queensland will then assemble at Dreamworld on Wednesday, October 05, 2011 to decide the outright winner in each age group.
There will be three rounds of ten words with the spelling being appropriate to each grade category.
(3) GRAND FINAL
The top 15 entrants across all three age groups will assemble at Dreamworld on Wednesday, October 05, 2011 to decide the outright winner in each age group.
There will be three knock-out rounds per age group. One student will be eliminated each round until there is a winner.
RULES FOR FINAL
(1) TIME ALLOWED
Each student will be given the word and that word will be used in a sentence. The student will then be given a reasonable time to finish spelling the word – maximum of thirty seconds.
(2) SCORING
One point will be awarded for each correct spelling. The student with the highest score per round wins.
In the event of a tie, students will be asked in turn to spell tie-break words on an elimination basis, until a single winner remains.
Should a finalist fall ill during the event (or, due to some emergency, request to leave the event) it will be at the discretion of News Queensland to allow the reserve student to participate. All finalists’ mobile phones must be switched off during the event.
When spelling words, contestants must face the Spellmaster and should speak clearly with sufficient volume to be audible. If an adjudicator is unable to clearly hear a letter spelt 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.
Prior to starting to spell a word, students may request the Spellmaster to say the word, say the word in a sentence, give the word definition, repeat the word.
It is the finalists’ prerogative to request or not to request this information. Finalists 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. Finalists may not ask for any information other than the items listed above.
Finalists must spell the British/Australian spelling of a word (e.g.: not center for centre; not color for colour).
ATTENDANCE AT THE GRAND FINALS
All Finalists must attend the Grand Finals at Dreamworld. All finalists must be accompanied by a supervising parent/guardian/carer or teacher.
School uniform (if applicable) must be worn.
SPECIAL NEEDS
Schools should inform News Queensland in advance if any students have special needs, such as wheelchair accessibility. The organisers may, at 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.
News Queensland will assess if a Grand Finalist requires flights to Brisbane or the Gold Coast to attend the Grand Final on 5th October 2011 at Dreamworld. Should a Grand Finalist require a flight, News Queenlsand will make the necessary bookings and cover the cost for the student and one only parent/guardian/carer.
ADJUDICATION
The Grand Finals of The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee will be adjudicated by a judge. Where possible, this judge will be supplied by HarperCollins, official dictionary of the Spelling Bee. In the event that HarperCollins is not able to provide a judge, an alternative will be sought.
The judge will oversee the spelling contest, scoring, adherence to The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee rules, and the identification of the winners. The judge’s decision is final.
All words will be based on the HarperCollins Australian Dictionary.
The judge will uphold the rules of The Courier-Mail 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. Appeals will not be allowed if the next round has commenced.
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 spelt the word before the judge can point out the error, the contestant will be given a replacement word (unless the spelling was correct).
PARENTAL/SCHOOL RESPONSIBLILITY
Each parent/guardian and/or class teacher or school representative is responsible for providing adequate and appropriate supervision and discipline of their finalist. News Queensland will not be responsible for supervision and discipline at any time.
AUDIENCE ATTENDANCE
If members of the audience are influencing the accuracy of finalists’ spelling by whatever means, the judge will give a warning that such behaviour should stop. If the judge believes this behaviour to have continued after the warning, the entrant will be disqualified.
SPELLING VOCABULARY
The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee Word List has been derived from the HarperCollins Australian Dictionary. Special consideration has been given to vocabulary appropriate for the ages of the contestants. A supplementary list of difficult, tie-breaking words has been extracted from the HarperCollins Dictionary.
There is a separate word list for each stage of The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee.
Words pronounced in The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee Play-Off challenge will increase in difficulty as the Play Off progresses.
The final authority for the accuracy of the information provided to the Spelling Bee is the HarperCollins Australian 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.
Every effort has been made to avoid words with homophones and variant spellings (alternatives). The HarperCollins Australian 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 point.
Finalists, parents and school representatives may not challenge decisions made by the Adjudicator about eligibility, disqualification, or the accuracy of the HarperCollins Australian Dictionary.
Only contestants or members of staff supervising school teams may appeal against the judge’s decision. Guests may not appeal any spelling decisions.
If an appeal that the Spellmaster has mispronounced a word is upheld by a judge or a HarperCollins Australia 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).
The final authority regarding the pronunciation of a word is the HarperCollins Australian Dictionary. 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.
No other dictionary will be regarded as evidence of pronunciation for the purposes of The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee.
All appeals will be resolved after each round.
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 student’s performance.
In order to minimise disruption to the pace of the event and the concentration of the spellers, the judge is under no obligation to stop The Courier-Mail 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 Courier-Mail.
A copy of the rules for The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee finals will be made available to the finalists.
News Queensland (or the Sponsors) assumes no responsibility or liability for lost, late, misdirected or incomplete entries, notifications or responses, or for any computer, online, telephone, hardware, software, or technical or transmission malfunction that may occur.
News Queensland (or the Sponsors) is not responsible for any injuries or damage to entrants or to any computer or other electronic equipment related to or resulting from participating, inputting or downloading materials in connection with this Spelling Bee.
News Queensland or the Sponsors assume no responsibility or liability in the event that The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee cannot be conducted or completed as planned for any reason, including but not limited to infection by computer virus or other technical issues.
News Queensland reserves the right to amend the rules and terms and conditions of The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee at any stage.
All correspondence and queries in relation to The Courier-Mail Spelling Bee should be directed to spellingbee@couriermail.com.au
.
