The national finals of the Island-wide Spelling Bee competition is set to take place tonight.

Finalists from 15 Government primary schools and three local middle schools will meet in the Ruth Seaton James Auditorium at CedarBridge Academy to battle for the title of national spelling bee champion.

The event is organised by the Continental Society who carry out various fund raising projects to help local children.

They started the event on a smaller scale last year in one of its adopted schools, Victor Scott Primary, but this year decided to open it to other primary schools and three middle schools.

"We were encouraged by the response of the students and staff at Victor Scott so we decided to go national this time,'' said Continental Society president Olga Scott.

The schools have been holding their own spelling bee competitions throughout the month to see which of their students will go forward and represent them tonight.

There will be 15 finalists from each of the primary schools and two finalists from each of the middle schools competing in a knock out round.

The words to be spelled were selected by the Department of Education and are levelled to suit the two age groups taking part.

The winners of the two age groups will receive an educational prize and the Continental Society intends to make a financial donation to each of the schools taking part.

"We are hoping to get some corporate sponsors for the event,'' said the Continental Society's vice president Judith Hall-Bean. "There's no admission fee on Saturday so we're hoping a lot of people will come to support the children.'' Premier Jennifer Smith is expected to attend the event, which starts at 7 p.m., as well as representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs.