The competition, held at the ABC Studios, saw the top 42 students from 130,000 involved in the competition go head to head for the title of spelling bee champion.

Their efforts were televised live via Youtube, giving all the schools, including Mulyan, the opportunity to tune in and watch the action unfold.

"I didn't know we were being recorded at first," Tom said.

"Then Mrs Ryan called me and told me they had been watching from school."

Ros Ryan coordinated the school's entries into the spelling competition and is proud of Tom's achievements.

"We encourage children to aim high here at Mulyan, and we are so proud that Tom represented the school in the finals," she said.

"Mulyan have had a finalist in three of the last four spelling finals," she said.

Tom made it through to the second round of the spelling titles before being knocked out on the word 'leeward'.

"The announcer pronounced it leu-ward and lee-ward which kind of confused me a bit," he said.

Tom was given a silver medal, a dictionary, a bag and a certificate for his efforts and is positive he will return to the competition again next year.

He enjoyed staying in the "really nice hotel" and flying to Sydney in a light plane.

"Our 7.20pm flight home on Wednesday night kept being delayed because of electrical storms," he said.

"Then it was cancelled because their were no crew to fly us, so we stayed another night and flew home the next morning," he said.