Two Edinburgh schools represented Scotland in each of the competitions, Kaimes School in the Consumer Challenge Quiz and Boroughmuir High in the Young Consumers Quiz. Both schools experienced huge success with Kaimes winning their UK title and Boroughmuir finishing runners up in theirs.
The 2013 UK Consumer challenge quiz organised by Birmingham Trading Standards was held on Tuesday of this week. This event was organised for Special Schools across the UK, and four pupils from Kaimes School travelled all the way to Brighton for the semis and then amazingly they made it to the final of the Consumer Challenge which they won.
The pupils were given a prize of £1000.
Headteacher Mrs Ros Miller said:-“There were some very tough questions, but they did amazingly well!”
Teachers Gwen Coleman and learning assistant Aisling Murphy accompanied the four children, Hamish, Tomaz, Daniel and Robson, to Brighton for the event and thanks are also due to Alex Jones Education Officer in Services for Communities, (providing Consumer Education in the city) who also went along. Kaimes School had not taken part in the UK Finals before but got through this year after winning a play off with Pilrig Park School in May.
After the flight to Gatwick and train to Brighton, the group had time to sample the delights of hot and sunny Brighton along the waterfront before meeting other teams involved in the competition for an evening meal.
The competition started in the morning on Tuesday 18 June and eight other teams, all from local authorities in England made up the UK Finals this year, all winners of local heats. In all, around 30 schools took part in preliminary rounds.
Kaimes were drawn in the second semi final and led all the way through to reach the final held in the afternoon. With all teams of a very high standard, a close contest was expected. As well as Kaimes, teams from Oxfordshire, Stockport and Staffordshire made up the four finalists.
The content of the quiz includes rounds focusing on shopping rights, consumer help agencies, food & drink, money and credit, personal and online safety, travel and holidays and environmental issues.
As in their semi final, Kaimes managed to take a lead in the early rounds and held on in a nail-biting finish to win by two points from Stockport.
Needless to say, all in the Edinburgh party were delighted…! Each of the team members received a bag of various prizes, principally among these were Samsung Galaxy Tablet computers, generously provided by main sponsors Curry’s – PC World. Birmingham Trading Standards, who organise the competition, will also provide the school with a cash prize of £1000. There was also a gleaming cup trophy presented, which as UK champions 2013, Kaimes can keep permanently.
The other Edinburgh school who have been strong supporters of the competition, Pilrig Park, have their trophy as they were UK winners at Bournemouth in 2011.
Meanwhile the other competition the Young Consumers of the Year Quiz resulted in a Dramatic Final…earlier today!
Boroughmuir earned their place in the UK Finals by winning their Edinburgh heat in December and then the Scottish title at Holyrood in March. They were joined in the UK finals by two teams from Wales and five from England. Over two thousand teams, mostly from England and Wales are involved in this competition nationally, which is organised by the Trading Standards Institute.
Competition is fierce and questions are often very technical and specialised over a wide range of consumer topics. The Boroughmuir team of four girls, Alice Gama, captain, Tara Smith, Lauren Jiang and Emily Kilgore established an early lead in their semi final and held on to reach the Grand Final with three other teams.
After some early difficulties in the Final, they fought back well to take the lead going into the final (all buzzer) round. At the end of the competition they were in a tie situation with Abbey Grange Academyfrom Leeds, each on 62 points.
To decide winner and runner up a question for buzzers was selected. Tension was high as the question was read out to the contestants and audience. One of the four boys in the Yorkshire team pressed his buzzer a fraction of a second before one of the Boroughmuir girls…. to provide a correct answer and win the tournament..! It was the first time in 27 years of the competition that it had been won on a tie break question. What drama…!
Commiserations to Boroughmuir, but the girls took it in good spirit, were a real credit to their school and city… and came away smiling with silver medals and a cheque for £500 for the school.
Edinburgh teams have done very well in this competition in recent years, with three wins and (now) three runners-up places.
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