Pupils through to national finals of spelling competition

Morley High School's team of 12-year-olds won through by correctly spelling words including crucible and consortium.

The winning team, which comprised of Laura Jones, Joseph Blackburn, Aaron Thompson, with Rebecca Grinham as a reserve, will now go forward to face the best school teams in the country at an event in London next month.

Yesterday's event at Sheffield's Cineworld was one of 10 semi-finals taking place, winners also going through from competitions in Middlesbrough, Didsbury, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Staples Corner, Feltham, Crawley and Cambridge.

The Spelling Bee Grand Final – the only national spelling championship for schools in Britain – will be held at London's Institute of Education on Thursday, June 24.

Morley High School teacher Rebecca Tydnall heaped praise on the team.

She said:"I'm really happy that they won, they were incredible."

In a statement, the winning team said: "We feel really happy that we're going to the grand final. It was pretty nerve-racking but we think we did really well."

The spelling bee event aims to discover the country's best young spellers while make spelling fun for children of all abilities. More than 1,000 schools from around the UK, from Scotland to the Channel Islands, entered a team which each included three members and a reserve speller.

The 2010 championship has been open to full-time pupils across the country who have or will turn 12-years-old between September 1, last year and August 31, this year.

The competition judges used spellings in the Collins School Dictionary which was compiled with the assistance of teachers for children aged 11 and 12. Teams were expected to be able to spell words which judges deemed to be challenging for 12-year-olds.