Spellathon 2012 goes live

Thursday 18 October 2012

Schools can sign up to Mencap’s free online spelling competition

From today (18 October), schools can sign up to take part in Mencap’s free annual spelling competition – Spellathon. 

Schoolchildren can compete against their peers, other classes and even other schools across the UK to spell as many words correctly as they can, to improve their spelling and to raise money for Mencap.

Pupils raise money by pledging a target number of words to spell correctly and seeking sponsorship to beat their own scores, and the scores of others. All words spelled correctly are banked in their ‘hive’ and displayed on the global leader board.

£10,000 prize – 10,000 words

The school that raises the most money per pupil will win a £10,000 cash prize, donated by the creators of the Spellathon's website, Digital Giving Ltd. 50 tickets to a Merlin Entertainment Group attraction are also up for grabs. The group’s attractions include Chessington World of Adventures, Thorpe Park, Alton Towers Resort and LEGOLAND.

Schools that take part can also receive a 25% refund on the total money they raise.

Spellathon supports teachers to improve their pupils’ spelling. It offers over 10,000 words, in line with the current National Curriculum, to test school children on, through a range of fun, interactive and engaging games. The games feature animated bees, voiced by Stephen Fry and actor Jodie Whittaker.

Spellathon has been running since 1993 and went online for the first time last year. Pupils at Ysgol Rhosnesni High School in Wrexham took part last year as part of their whole-school literacy programme. Callum, a Year 8 pupil said: “I enjoyed taking part in the Spellathon as it was cool and it helped me to improve my spelling. I can’t wait to take part next year!”

Faith Ingham, Mencap’s assistant director of fundraising says: “Since Spellathon moved online last year, we’ve developed some really exciting new features, including a tool that helps teachers track their pupils’ progress and change their difficulty levels accordingly. We’ve also created lots of easy-to-use resources for teachers to help improve their pupils’ spelling ability.”

Find out more and to register your school for Spellathon