Flair for French earns Perse pupil place in national finals

Chloe (Year 7) combined speed and accuracy to great effect to qualify for the Foreign Language Spelling Bee national finals.

She won the French category in the East finals at North Cambridge Academy to make it through to next month’s finals of the competition at Cambridge University.

Just to reach the regional round, Chloe had already progressed from two previous stages, while attempting to memorise a growing number of words en français and trying to spell as many as possible correctly in one minute.

After learning 200 words for the East finals, Chloe must now commit a further 100 words to mind ahead of the national finals.

She said: “I thought it may be fun to have a go and somehow I’ve got to this stage. I was really nervous in the regional finals – when it’s your turn, they give you a countdown of ‘3-2-1’, but I started spelling the word for ‘three’ in French forgetting it was part of the countdown!

“The top four went through the national finals and I ended up winning, even though I wasn’t expecting it, so I’m really proud of myself.

“There will be more pressure because it’s a national final, but I’m just going to try not to freak out with the countdown next time!”