Media Release
Udupi, Jan 19: St Mary’s Spell Bee award ceremony was held at St Mary’s Auditorium on January 17.
St Mary’s Spell Bee is a novel educational initiative undertaken by the school from the current academic year with a purpose of sharpening the linguistic skills of students.It is a methodically structured comprehensive program encompassing a large group of students from Grade 1 to 12.
After the yearlong phases of written and oral rounds, the most impressive talents were shortlisted for the most prestigious St Mary’s Spell Bee awards. Chief guest of the programme proffesor. Mathew C Nainan, the director of Little Rock Indian School, Brahmavar; Fr Charles Menezes, the correspondent of the school, Maxim D’Souza and Dr Colonel Arthur Rodrigues respectively the vice president and the secretary of parish pastoral council, Mother of Sorrows Church, Udupi were escorted by principal Fr Johnson Sequeira and vice principal Rita Quadros to the auditorium with the honor of the school band.
The formal programme commenced with a prayer song by students’ choir. Later the dignitaries were traditionally welcomed through a classical dance performance. Principal presented the formal note of welcome with introductory remarks. Mohammad Shawaz of Grade 8 and Vinola of Grade 12 shared their experiences elaborating the learning outcomes of Spell Bee competition. The First and Second prize winners from each Grade were honored with trophies and also rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 5,000 and 3,000 respectively as token of appreciation. The winners also received the esteemed title ‘the Spell bees of St Mary’s’ –making them the champs of language.
Gowri Anand Karnad, the parent of Arunitha Karnad, the prize winner shared her thoughts on how the Spell Bee competition helped children to improve the pronunciation and vocabulary. Chief guest proffesor Mathew C Nainan, who is hugely experienced and resourceful in the field of education, administration and trainingwas felicitated with shawl, citation and memento. Prof Mathew C Nainanin his speech stressed that the effective communication skills are supremely important to interface the challenges of the present global world. He also advised students to be inquisitive in exploring the wonders of nature than confining oneself to the ‘the digital highway’. Correspondent Fr Charles Menezes in his presidential address congratulated the winners and highlighted the need of good fluency over multiple languages to strengthen the bond of relationship with society.
Benedicta Fernandes, Janet D’Souza and Irwin Alva,the honorable members of the school management committee were present on the occasion. The parents of prize winners also attended the programme. Vice principal Rita Quadros extended the words of gratitude. Vinay Suvarna anchored the programme. The award ceremony officially got concluded with the school anthem.