Two Truro High pupils placed in the top three for their category in the regional final of Foreign Languages Spelling Bee.
Year 7, Isabella Drechsel stormed to victory winning first place in the Spanish language category. In a nail-biting final round, Isabella kept her cool under the pressure of three tie breaks followed by sudden death and came out on top.
Fellow linguist, Katie Mayall placed third in the German category.
Year 7 Elizabeth Grande also competed in the fiercely contested French category.
Their success means the two Year 7 pupils will represent the region at the national final of the prestigious contest.
The competition – which is sponsored by the European Commission and Vocab Express – involves Year 7 pupils from across the UK who compete to accurately translate and spell the most number of words in French, Spanish or German in just 60 seconds.
The word is read out to them in English then the student has to spell the word in the foreign language, including any accents.
So far the girls have mastered how to spell 150 words in their chosen language and will now learn another 50 for the final in July.
Over 100 pupils from across the UK have qualified for the final, with regional winners in the three different languages – French, German and Spanish – having won through local heats to get this far.
The competition is now in its fourth year and is nationally entered by nearly 60,000 children. It is organised by Routes Into Languages East which is based at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridgeshire.
