Grade 5 student, Chayce Davies, concentrated on correctly spelling one of the words given to him by the judges during yesterday's Canspell Spelling Bee competition held yesterday at Ecole St. Thomas d'Aquin, while fellow students, Andre Mueller, Makayla Clarke and Kiana Farrell looked on. As the winner of the competition, Davies will be representing the school at the next level of competition in Lethbridge.--NEWS PHOTO PEGGY REVELL

PEGGY REVELL
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Nailing the correct spelling of "episode," Chayce Davies, will represent Ecole St. Thomas d'Aquin at the next level of competition for the Canspell Spelling Bee program.
Eight students from Grades 4-6 tested their spelling-mettle yesterday afternoon in front of friends, teachers and family hoping to be the ones to head to Lethbridge on February 25 to compete against other finalists from the region's schools.
"We're very proud of all of them, it takes guts," said Grade 4-5 teacher, Claire Quinlan, who organized this year's competition at the school.
This is the fifth year that St. Thomas d'Aquin has participated in the Canspell competition, which sees schools from across Canada run spelling bees and face off against each other until a final televised showdown takes place later this year.
"We're very proud to have run this for five years," said Grade 5-6 teacher, Terry Kennedy, who was one of the adjudicators and has organized the local bee in past years. "And sending kids to Lethbridge, that makes us very proud."
Kennedy noted that this year's winner, Davies, actually competed last year for the shot to go to Lethbridge, but didn't win.
But the Grade 5 student "persevered" and studied hard, so that this year he came out on top after 10 rounds.
Davies said that he had been studying for at least an hour each night since receiving the study guide back in December.
During the school's bee, he said his only thoughts were "if I was going to spell my words right."
"I'm looking forward to getting to spell more and see if I get to go spell in different places," he said about the opportunity to compete in Lethbridge, adding that he'll be studying as much as he can until then.