Six Year 12 pupils came third in the national final of a competition designed to show teenagers what it is like to be a chartered accountant.
The sixth-formers had reached the last 50 at the final in Birmingham after first seeing off competitors in three previous rounds of the BASE contest, which is organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
They won a coveted Highly Commended trophy as well as the prize of spending a day at the London offices of Ernst & Young (EY). Nationwide, the competition attracted entries from 500 schools and more than 4,000 pupils.
In the earlier rounds, the team had to present ideas for a fictional technology company. In the final challenge, however, they were given a fresh business study and required to think like chartered accountants, planning an appropriate strategy to enable the business to move forward.
Economics teacher Kimberley Jackson said: “They had to use knowledge acquired through their Economics lessons to analyse the problems surrounding acquisitions and mergers and to reflect upon important current issues impacting businesses, such as cyber safety and data protection.
“The team delivered a short presentation to a panel of judges and were asked many challenging questions. The judges were very impressed with their informative and well-delivered presentation.
“The boys all thoroughly enjoyed the experience of presenting and the chance to network with major employers such as PwC, EY and KPMG. They now look forward to competing again in 2018-19.”
The team comprised Shakeel Ahmed, Tarun Alexander, Millan George, Parth Gosalia, Manan Shah and Rohan Shah.