K. P Aishwarya Naidu a student of Nasr Girls School was declared the regional winner of Collins India’s popular School Scrabble championship programme held in the city on Tuesday. Ms. Naidu will now get an opportunity to participate in World Youth Scrabble championship to be held at Lille, France in August this year.
The finals of Collins School Scrabble Championship will also be held at Lille. The championship is organised by Collins India in association with Mindsports Academy. The Hindu was the media partner for the event.
The regional-level championship was held in Meridian School, Banjara Hills. The event was a huge success and the participants considered it to be a learning experience for future tournaments. This year, schools signed up on Mindsports Academy website to take part in the competition. The registered schools then setup Scrabble clubs in their schools for interested students aged between eight and 12-years. The students then played intra-school tournaments assisted by Collins India as well as Mindsports Academy in score keeping, recording results and judging winners.
At Tuesday’s event which was attended not just by students but their parents and teachers from participating schools, Ananth Padmanabhan, CEO of HarperCollins India said, “We are excited by the possibilities of this initiative to encourage students across the country to take to words like never before.” Dave Brannan, Chairman of Mindsports Academy added, “The Mindsports Academy is excited at the opportunity to create new and exciting ways in which to learn and compete using Scrabble and other skill based games. Along with our partner Collins we aim to build a lasting School Scrabble competition and learning programme across India with players of all ages and abilities taking part.”
Scrabble is an educational game which educators and parents worldwide use to help students strengthen their verbal, spelling, math, time management, team work, social and even strategic thinking skills.
Dr. Elaine Higgleton, the International Publisher for Collins Learning further stated, “I’ve been involved with Scrabble – on the book publishing side – for twenty years and it is very fulfilling to see the launch of the schools Scrabble competition in India. Scrabble is the ultimate educational game; players need exemplary vocabulary and spelling skills, well-honed mental maths skills and the ability to think strategically to be able to beat their opponents. ”
