Collins National Spelling Bee 2023 Championship

19 September 2023

Vivaan Shabish wins Collins National Spelling Bee 2023 Championship

Vivaan Shabish, a student from grade 6 of the Navy Children School, New Delhi, is the champion of the fourth season of Collins National Spelling Bee held at Elpro International School, Pune on 16 September 2023. Sinduja S from TVIS Velammal Vidyalaya, Ponneri bagged the first runner-up spot, and Myra Kanshal from National Academy for Learning, Bengaluru secured the second runner-up position in the competition.

Collins conducts spelling bees with the objective to enhance students’ vocabulary, pronunciation, and understanding of etymology and usage. Now in its fourth season, Collins National Spelling Bee 2023 saw more than one lakh students registering for the competition, with 6000 students participating in all the heats successfully. The preliminary rounds and semifinals were conducted online, which were a combination of quizzes and spelling rounds. The top 36 scorers from the prelims engaged in a battle of spellings in six semifinals, and 12 of them made their way into the grand finale.

The final held at Elpro International School, Pune was streamed live on Collins’ Facebook page for a large audience of teachers, students, and parents cheering for the finalists. The final went up to 19 rounds, where students were given words from the same band of difficulty level. A total of 154 words were used in the final, and Vivaan’s winning word was ‘liability.’ The participants had to spell each word within 30 seconds of it being pronounced.

Dr Elaine Higgleton, International Publisher – Collins, who adjudicated the competition and prepared the word lists, said, “This year’s spelling bee has been a wonderful event with an exciting and hard-fought Grand Finale. Well done to Sinduja and Vivaan who fought it out head-to-head over the last five rounds, with Vivaan eventually winning with ‘liability’. It was great that teachers accompanied some of the students this year. The competition can really help students increase their vocabulary skills, boost their confidence when speaking in public and help them learn to think clearly when under pressure. Looking forward to 2024! ”

Mr Ajay Poonia, a well-known quizmaster and anchor, who we saw in a dual role of a presenter and a co-adjudicator in the competition said, “With each passing year, the Collins National Spelling Bee becomes a lot more intense and thus intriguing for both participants and viewers. This year’s edition upped both – quantity and quality – over previous editions. The mature manner in which the students kept their calm was pretty evident in the way they kept spelling those carefully curated words round after round. It really was an experience worth enduring. And it’s no surprise that Collins Spell Bee keeps setting higher and higher standards for participants in their desire to win the coveted championship. Congratulations to Vivaan, Sinduja and Myra for seeing their hard work pay off!”

Ms Rageshree Niyogi, Director – Marketing, Collins India, said, “Season 4 of Collins National Spelling Bee was special in many ways, witnessing the camaraderie among participants, motivating each other, consoling when one misspelled a word, and rooting for each other. A big shout out to all the participants, parents and teachers for displaying such wonderful sporting spirit and for preparing so well for the competition. These skills are as important as nurturing vocabulary and spelling skills. Congratulations to all the winners and participants for making this season such a success!”

About Collins

Collins has been publishing educational and informative books for over 200 years. Throughout this rich heritage it has maintained an impressive record in creating market-leading products across various sectors. As the educational publishing division of HarperCollins Publishers and one of the fastest growing companies in the K12 segment in India, Collins continues to deliver up-to-date and engaging student resources and exceptional teacher support to help schools tackle new initiatives and utilise the latest technology. The Collins catalogue includes print and digital resources catering to CBSE, ICSE, State Board and International curricula, with state-of-the-art blended learning programme – Collins Infinity – being adopted by some of the leading schools across the country. Visit www.collins.in to view the complete list of Collins resources.