This weekend, more than 500 school learners from eight provinces are participating in the 17th Sanlam WOW Spelling Festival finals in Stellenbosch.
It is the biggest spelling festival in South Africa and is presented in three languages – Afrikaans (Grade 1 to 10), English (Grade 4 to 9), and isiXhosa (Grade 5 to 8). The Sanlam WOW Spelling Festival is a flagship project of Words Open Worlds (WOW) at Stellenbosch University (SU). This year, there were 2 208 registrations across the three languages for this empowerment initiative.
A festival: spell it out loud, proud and playfully
“The Sanlam WOW Spelling Festival was launched in 2009 to develop more than just learners’ language proficiency and -pride. Spelling a word out loud in front of a judging panel of seasoned education experts can be quite intimidating. This process also builds our young learners’ confidence, and they often end up studying at Stellenbosch University through their exposure to WOW’s educational – and, it must be said, fun – projects,” says Fiona van Kerwel, WOW manager. “At the Sanlam WOW Spelling Festival, we spell it out loud, proud and playfully. It is a festival after all! Together with all participants, parents, and educators, we look forward to the vibe building up to Saturday.”
There are exciting prizes up for grabs, including books, cellphones, cash, mascot toys (first-place winners get SU’s mischievous Pokkel!), and medals. All learners and officials also receive a certificate of participation.
Learners had to participate in three rounds to advance to the national finals – the circuit round, district round, and provincial round. This year, 322 spelling festivals were hosted across these three rounds.
The national finals of the Sanlam WOW Spelling Festival takes place on 3 October at the SU campus. Programme information and preparation materials are available online on WOW’s website at wow.woordfees.co.za/en/, along with more information about the work WOW does to empower school communities. The spelling lists were compiled in collaboration with the Virtual Institute for Afrikaans (VivA).
