Last year’s junior division winner, Wafiq Ayyash from New Lambton Public School, is back to defend his title at the 2025 NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee state finals, where 64 of NSW’s best young spellers will battle it out at the Q Theatre in Penrith on Friday, 7 November.

Also vying for one of two winning titles is Year 6 student, William Weatherall, from Coonabarabran Public School who is making an extraordinary fourth consecutive appearance alongside four returning senior finalists, three of whom have moved up from the junior ranks since last year.

Students will travel from as far west as Broken Hill, as far north as Tregeagle, and as far south as Bega to compete, with all 2025 returning finalists from regional NSW.

Hargraves Public School in NSW’s Central West is the only school to have representatives in both the junior and senior finals, with junior finalist, Year 2 student Jack Primmer one of this year’s youngest competitors.

The Premier’s Spelling Bee, introduced in 2004 by former Premier Bob Carr, has become a much-loved literacy event that inspires confidence and curiosity in language among NSW students.

The junior and senior finalists from Years 2 to 6 represent the top 0.03 per cent of almost 200,000 students who took part in school spelling bees across some 1,000 NSW schools this year.

To make it through to the finals, students were required to spell difficult words such as “irreproachable”, “photomontage” and “sojourn”; words not on the supplied lists.

In August, almost 2,000 students competed online for the regional finals, a format that remains a popular and inclusive competition approach.

The Arts Unit Premier’s Spelling Bee Support Officer, Desiree Lane, said it was an incredible achievement to make the state finals.

“Students, families and schools should be proud of these 64 finalists and the dedication it took to beat out almost 200,000 other students to make it to the finals in Sydney,” Ms Lane said.

This year, 23 finalists speak a language other than English at home, making up 36 percent of the competing cohort and representing 16 language groups.

“Year on year our multilingual students perform well in the finals, indicating the strength of language acquisition in young children and the way their second language, English, is enhanced,” Ms Lane explained.

While the competition might be serious, the enthusiasm is light-hearted with six of this year’s finalists citing “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis” as their favourite word to spell, while three went with the old faithful “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”.

At the finals, contestants will begin with ‘seen’ word lists provided by Macquarie Dictionary before facing ‘unseen’ challenges that test spelling skill and composure under pressure.

The 2025 NSW Premier’s Spelling Bee is proudly supported by ABC Sydney, ACCO Brands Australia, Word List Partner, Macquarie Dictionary and Venue Partner Penrith Performing & Visual Arts.