You probably guessed it already, but this blog is about our math and spelling competitions here at Tumaini Evangelistic Pre & Primary School. This are one of my favorite things to do every year. I get to see students who have not always done well on exams step up and exceed all notions of their capabilities. It is actually through competitions, that I think some of our students have realized their potential and started doing better on their exams. There are a lot of competition quotes and sayings, but I always remember that if you are the best at something when no one challenges you, are you really any good? Without any further ado I present our champions for 2022 with comments when needed. Also please excuse the student yearbook type posing, I am trying to work on my picture taking ability of people and wanted to work on this type of posing. The kids actually loved that I told them how to sit, cross their legs and hold their hands which shocked me. As always getting great smiles took a bit of work.

Spelling Champs

Standard I was ruled by the girls, but I was not surprised by this development as these three typically lead their class in exams as well. Juliet and Josephine push each other as friends and competitors. Tushime typically is more quiet at 4th or 5th place but did well in the spelling competition. Actually the entire class pushed my expectations by almost running me out of words.

Standard II was ruled by the boys (the only class where the boys really ruled by the way. Alex and Samson did not surprise me, but Meshack did a little bit. He shows how smart he is occasionally, but only in brief stints. I think it is more lack of effort than lack of knowledge.

So yes the girls lead the way here, but you might be wondering why two tied for 1st place and no others. The remainder of the class dropped out of this competition after about 5 rounds. These two went another 12 rounds before school was about to let out. Technically Minaeli got the win because she was about 2 seconds faster than Gertrude but after that effort I declared them both winners.

This was a class of surprises this year. 1st the majority of the class went 10 rounds. 2nd is that Happy and Noel are not normally in the top half of the class during exams. I was really proud of both of them for sticking to it and working hard to get their words spelled correctly.

Grace is a little bit of surprise, she does well in testing but not normally competitions. Teresia however is one whose test scores have gone up as she has won several competitions. Gladness is always a top contender in grades and competitions.

Math Champs

This time Juliet and Josephine switched places, but the shock came with Helen battling her way to a 2nd place tie. I think her smile sums up the accomplishment.

Once again the Standard II champion group is all boys. The only class to pull that off. And three different winners from the spelling competition.

Standard III had the wildest swing. Not only did we completely change champions between spelling and math, we switched genders going from an all girl championship in spelling to an all boy championship in math.

Nice finally got back to first place after losing to Clara for several years. I was taken aback that Clara did not even place. The Baraka boys are normally top players but it is normally Baraka Enoch not Baraka Petro who wins. Also of note, the twins Dorice and Dorine both placed in their strongest fields.

The surprise for this group-Obedi beating out his twin sister in a tiebreaker round 3-2 to grab second place and his first time in the championship boards.

Congratulations to all our students for trying so hard.