Northern Society of Chartered Accountants

Morpeth school team highly commended at BASE 2014 national final 7 August 2014

Winners of the Newcastle BASE heat, King Edward VI School, Morpeth, Northumberland were Highly Commended at the national final of BASE 2014 and benefitted from the support and guidance from their mentor.

Judge at the BASE national final with the highly commended team from King Edward VI School, Morpeth and their mentor Hayley Lewis from National Audit Office

Following their success at the Newcastle upon Tyne heat of BASE in March 2014 (one of 4 heats held in the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants area) a team from King Edward VI School, Morpeth travelled to Birmingham recently to compete in the national finals of BASE 2014.

BASE is ICAEW’s national Business, Accounting and Skills Education competition for students aged 16-19. A unique and exciting experience, students are able to engage in a challenging business game that enables them to develop key employability skills and understand what it’s like to be an ICAEW Chartered Accountant.

The school team was supported during the heats and the national final by their mentor Hayley Lewis, an Audit Principal at the National Audit Office in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Hayley writes: During a busy few months in the year at the National Audit Office I was lucky enough to be given the time to volunteer to mentor the King Edward VI School Morpeth team in the BASE 2014 competition heat at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. 

using my accounting and business knowledge to support the team

My role as mentor involved using my accounting and business knowledge to support the team: pointing them in the right direction when required and keeping them on track, but not directly answering any of the questions for them, quite a skill!

The King Edward VI team won their heat and were given the opportunity to compete in June in the national final in Birmingham against 47 other schools where I was invited to mentor the team again. It was a proud moment when the team were given an award for being highly commended; one of only 8 teams awarded a prize.

I was impressed with how well the team worked together

Throughout the heat and the final, I was impressed with how well the team worked together and the speed at which they assimilated the information in front of them to be able to come up with well though out responses to the challenges posed during the day.

This culminated in a presentation in front of a panel of judges who were acting as the board of a company.  Many congratulations to the King Edward VI School team that I mentored and well done to all the people involved in arranging BASE 2014! 

Look out for BASE 2015 heats across the north east and Cumbria

BASE will be returning in 2015 and schools and sixth forms across the north east and Cumbria are invited to enter a team of 16-19 years olds to take part. Local heats will be taking place in Carlisle (24/2/15); Newcastle upon Tyne (11/3/15) and Teesside (25/3/15).  More details can be found at icaew.com/base.

About ICAEW
The ICAEW Chartered Accountant qualification, the ACA, is one of the most advanced learning and professional development programmes available. It is valued around the world in business, practice and the public sector. More information is available at icaew.com.

About Northern Society
Northern Society of Chartered Accountants (NorSCA) represents 4,000 ICAEW members and ACA students working in business and the finance profession across the North East of England, Teesside, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. We have been assisting businesses in the north of England and producing chartered accountants for over 130 years.