It was a night to remember at the recent Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) LUCA Awards: three out of eight nominations with connections to Ideal Schools were announced winners at the event’s first ever virtual ceremony.

The winners were:
⭐ Eszter Petrinovics, founder of Manchester-based OptiAccounts, won the Tutor of the Year award. This is the second time Eszter has won this award and marks the sixth time Ideal Schools’ colleagues have won it.

Known as Superlady at Ideal Schools HQ given her knowledge and ability to handle huge volumes of work, she is a worthy winner.

‘Going above and beyond’ as a student said recently on Trustpilot sums her up perfectly: https://uk.trustpilot.com/users/5f4a76e3c2a0b9c444c3e139

⭐ Lucy Brown won Branch Chair of the Year. This was third time lucky for Lucy and well deserved as she has successfully grown the Lincolnshire ICB Branch from scratch to 75 members on its Facebook page.

The benefits of the ICB Branches are clear as five of these members, and the Branch itself, were nominated for various awards this year.

Lucy started her own business in 2014. It is going from strength to strength, recently marking her first year as a limited company with a significant growth in clients.

⭐ Clare Kendall won the award for New Practice of the Year, a fantastic achievement as she only set up her business in January 2020.

Clare embraced the lockdown by studying hard and getting her business processes in place and is now reaping rewards by winning new work. She is a big fan of the ICB Branch and all the benefits collaborating brings.

Other Ideal Schools’ colleagues nominated for the awards but pipped at the post were:

 Student of the Year:
Midlands-based Marie Phillips is one of the most determined students we have seen at Ideal Schools. She has had to tackle some health issues along the way, but nothing has stopped her learning journey. We can only see good things ahead for her business, Abelha Bookkeeping, as it continues to grow.

Student of the Year & New Practice:
Tracy Irvine celebrates one year in business as a bookkeeper in style for being nominated for the two above awards. Her approachable, friendly, and reliable service has resulted in positive word of mouth spreading quickly throughout South Wales where she now has 30+ customers at TKI Bookkeeping.

New Practice of the Year:
Morris Leach’s nomination for this category arrived as he celebrated one year in business as SMB Accounts. With a distinguished career in IT contracting and many of his customers being contacts from the IT world, Morris has his sights set on expanding into other parts of Oxfordshire and West Berkshire from his Wantage base.  A self-confessed exam addict Morris has raced through the courses.

Small Practice of the Year:
Louise Woodhouse has been busy since winning the 2018 Student of The Year LUCA Award, significantly growing her Lincolnshire practice – Adds Up Bookkeeping & Accounts Service. In the last year alone its customer base has doubled.

The pandemic period has seen Louise offer lots of helpful advice for clients during which time she has carried out numerous furlough calculations free of charge for many business owners. You can read more about Louise’s fantastic story on our website here: /student-spotlight/louise-woodhouse

Large Training Provider of the Year
Ideal Schools was shortlisted in this category which is gratifying since it shows our process and approach works. It is especially pleasing to see students win at awards as each one inspires our current and future students to believe they can do it too. The 2019 Tutor of the Year winner, Scot Van Der Akker, sums it up best on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ125kY5zHU

Brian McVean, director at Ideal Schools, said: “Well done to all the winners and nominees. These are all great achievements which recognise everyone’s hard work in what has been an extraordinary and challenging year.

“In any other year there would have been a fantastic ceremony in London timed to coincide with the Bookkeeping Summit, so with any luck we will return to that format next year when we can all celebrate in person.”