Year 5 student Amara Alderman from Evans River Community School and Harper Thompson, a Year 6 student from Tregeagle Public School, will represent the Northern Rivers region at the 2025 Premier’s Spelling Bee state finals. This prominent event will take place on November 7, 2025, at the Q Theatre in Penrith, where they will join 62 other top young spellers from across New South Wales.
These students will face off against notable competitors, including William Weatherall from Coonabarabran Public School, who is making an impressive fourth consecutive appearance in the finals. Other returning finalists include four senior competitors who have advanced from the junior ranks since last year, showcasing the depth of talent in this year’s cohort. Notably, Wafiq Ayyash, the 2024 junior division champion from New Lambton Public School, will also be defending his title.
Regional Representation and Enthusiastic Competitors
Amara and Harper will travel significant distances to compete, joining students from as far west as Broken Hill and as far south as Bega. All finalists in the 2025 competition hail from regional areas of New South Wales, emphasizing the strong representation from outside urban centers.
Among the competitors, Hargraves Public School in Central West NSW stands out as the only institution to have finalists in both the junior and senior categories. Year 2 student Jack Primmer is one of the youngest participants this year, highlighting the competition’s inclusivity.
While the competition is undoubtedly serious, the enthusiasm among participants remains light-hearted. Six finalists have humorously cited the complex word ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’ as their favorite to spell, while three others opted for the more whimsical choice of ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.
Celebrating Literacy and Language Skills
The Premier’s Spelling Bee was established in 2004 by former Premier Bob Carr. It has grown into a beloved literacy event that fosters confidence and curiosity about language among students in New South Wales. This year, the junior and senior finalists, who range from Years 2 to 6, represent the top 0.03% of nearly 200,000 students who participated in school spelling bees across approximately 1,000 schools in the state.
Notably, 23 of this year’s finalists speak a language other than English at home, making up 36 percent of the participants and representing 16 different language groups. The diversity of the finalists reflects the rich multicultural tapestry of New South Wales.
In August, nearly 2,000 students competed in an online format for the regional finals, a method that has proven to be both popular and inclusive. The finals will be hosted by ABC personalities Toni Matthews for the junior final, scheduled from 9:15 AM to 12:00 PM, and Mark Humphries for the senior final from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
Contestants will begin with ‘seen’ word lists provided by the Macquarie Dictionary before facing off against ‘unseen’ challenges that will test their spelling acumen and ability to perform under pressure. For further information about the NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee, interested parties can visit the The Arts Unit website.
