For the second year, Hurstville Adventist School student, Hanyuan Li, has topped his grade for NSW in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) Spelling test run by the University of NSW. He received his medal in a special ceremony held at the University of NSW on 23 November.

Ten-year-old Hanyuan Li was the only Year 4 student in NSW to receive a medal for spelling. He also received the top medal last year for the Year 3 ICAS Spelling test.

“This is a staggering achievement considering the number of students who entered,” said Mr Daniel Taylor, Year 5/6 Teacher and Primary Coordinator at Hurstville Adventist School. “In addition to this, Hanyuan Li started Kindergarten with our school not yet speaking English. His diligence, and the commitment of his parents, has really paid off with this amazing result. We’re all very proud of him.”

Every year, more than one million student entries from over 6,300 schools in Australia and New Zealand are accepted for ICAS, which are developed annually for primary and secondary school students in the subject areas of Computer Skills, English, Mathematics, Science, Spelling and Writing. The ICAS Spelling test is an independent assessment developed in conjunction with Macquarie Dictionary. It assesses and reports students’ skills at spelling words in four different contexts: dictation, proofreading, error correction and applying rules and conventions.

“Hanyuan is an exceptional student and he’s really flourished at our school. He didn’t specifically prepare for the test, but his love of reading and overall commitment to learning has really helped him earn his spot as the top speller for year 4 in NSW,” said Mr Taylor. “He did admit to me that he was a little nervous when he sat the test, but that’s only because he was keen to do as well as he did last year!”

Hanyuan was accompanied by his mother and Mr Taylor when he received his award at the University of NSW.