Jamie's hard work pays off

Top Bees

1. Jamie Crooks, Bethel Primary and Junior High

2. Jabari Brown, Green Island Primary

3. Jaina Linton, March Town SDA Preparatory

4. Danique Daley, Green Island Primary

5. Quiono Moodie, Esher Primary

Top Boy: Jamie Crooks, Bethel Primary and Junior High

Top Girl: Jaina Linton, March Town SDA Preparatory

Winning word: A-B-A-T-T-O-I-R

Coach: Beverly Williams, Vice Principal

Number of spellers: 34

Meet the champ: Jamie has been spelling since grade two.

It was no hard task to get him to spell. He always took the initiative to make sure to take part in spelling classes. Over the summer, he was assigned a specific number of words. He takes correction well, and he is a fun child to work with.

The 11-year-old, who is in grade six, says it isn't hard preparing for the Grade Six Achievement Test and the Spelling Bee because he likes studying.

His favourite television programme is I Am Frankie, and he loves to read.

Jamie says he has thought about many careers, but his goal is to become a singer. The song he can't get out of his head is Justin Bieber's As Long As You Love Me, and his top three artistes are Bruno Mars, The Chainsmokers and Justin Bieber.

Jamie on winning: "I feel really good. I thought children from other schools would have been better than me, but I said to myself, 'If you don't try, then you wont be successful."

Coach on winning: "I'm really happy to be champion coach this year. It has been quite a number of times. I'm just happy that the hard work paid off."