How to run an inter-house spelling bee: format, rules and house points

A spelling bee is one of the simplest academic events to add to a house calendar. It needs a word list, a pronouncer and a few judges, and it is easy to follow from the back of a hall. This guide builds a house format from the suggested rules of a national US bee and four school reports from England, Australia and India.

1. Decide who takes part

Schools do this in three ways.

• Everyone, then representatives. Sherwood Primary in Lancashire, England, says every child in school takes part in its 2026 bee. Foundation and Year 1 do challenges within their daily phonics groups. Years 2 to 6 do a first round on word lists for their year group, and each class then chooses "Star Bees" to represent their houses in an inter-house second round.
• Fixed places per house. At Heathdale Christian College in Victoria, Australia, two students from each house per year level competed in its 2022 bee. Each year group had a winner and a runner-up.
• A class-based qualifier. The Indian School in New Delhi ran a series of "spell well" classes before its 2013 inter-house bee for classes IV and V. Performance was rated on the number of correct spellings, using spelling lists published on the school website, and the winners of those rounds went through to the main competition.

Pick the model that matches your goal. A whole-school round brings every pupil into the house points. Fixed places per house keep the final short.

2. Choose the words

Use lists that your pupils can prepare for.

• Sherwood sets Round 1 words from the common exception words (Year 2) and the statutory word lists (Years 3 to 6) for each year group, with the lists in pupils' diaries and on the school website. Round 2 tests the spelling rules and patterns children have been exploring in class.
• The Indian School published its spelling lists on the school website for the qualifier.

Publishing the list means pupils can practise and parents can help, and it keeps the event about spelling instead of surprise. We suggest raising the difficulty from round to round.

3. Set the rules for the bee round

The Scripps National Spelling Bee publishes suggested rules for local bees. They are not required, and Scripps says local officials' decisions are final, but they are a good starting point. Among them:

• Number each student so they spell in the same order every round.
• Students may ask for alternate pronunciations, the part of speech, the definition, or for the word to be used in a sentence. At school level they may also ask about the word's origin.
• A correct spelling moves a student on. An incorrect one means they are out.
• If every student in a round misspells, all of them are invited back, a do-over.
• A student who asks to start over may do so, but cannot change letters already said or their order.
• Capitals, special characters and spaces are not required. Judge on the order of the letters only.
• Declare a champion when only one student moves on to the next round and then spells correctly in that one-student, one-word round.

Write the rules on one page, hand them to the pronouncer and judges, and read them to pupils before the first word. The page does not say how many rounds to run or how many students should advance, so set that yourself against your timetable.

4. Add a variety round if you want one

Not everything has to be a standard bee. The Indian School's 2013 final had four rounds: spelling words correctly, saying a palindrome aloud, circling words in an alphabet grid and identifying the correct word from jumbled letters. Variety gives pupils who prefer not to spell aloud another way to take part.

5. Turn results into house points

The reports show how differently schools score.

• At Clyst Vale Community College in Exeter, England, a Year 7 house bee had two rounds, a semi-final and a final, and the houses got 300, 200 and 100 house points for first, second and third. Individual finalists earned additional house points, with no amounts given in the report.
• At Heathdale, every student participant helped collect house points, and the report gave house totals of 76, 68, 50 and 32.
• At Sherwood, children win points for their houses and individual prizes, with no amounts given.

None of these is a standard scale. Choose points for participation, for each round survived and for the final placings, publish them before the event, and check that the total is in proportion to your other events. The house points rules guide covers how to do that.

6. A one-page plan

• Participation model chosen
• Word lists published
• One-page rules written, with the pronouncer and judges briefed
• Order of spelling fixed, with numbers for students
• Rounds, and how many advance, decided
• House points set for taking part and for placings
• Certificates or prizes ready

Where this fits

The inter-house competition guide shows how a bee fits into the year, and the inter-house event ideas article lists it with other academic events. The house cup and awards guide covers how to present the results.