Year 6 Lego Robotics team competes in UK tournament

The Year 6 Lego Robotics team, Loretanics, travelled to London on Wednesday January 21 to take part in a robotics competition in Stevenage. The team consisted of 10 pupils, eight of whom made the trip.

After arriving and settling into accommodation near Canary Wharf, the pupils visited Activate at the O2 Arena, an interactive light game experience where they competed in individual challenges as a team. The visit included a backpack of merchandise for each pupil, which the team received as a donation from Activate.

On Thursday the group spent the day visiting attractions in London. After travelling by Tube they visited Westfield Shopping Centre, where the Pop Mart store proved particularly popular.
They then attended The Minecraft AR experience, where pupils used light cubes to interact with the game environment and complete challenges such as chopping down virtual trees to “save the village”.

Following an evening meal at their accommodation, the group travelled to Covent Garden to experience the local atmosphere before walking to the West End to watch The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. Staff reported that the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

The robotics competition took place in Stevenage on Friday January 23, with 12 teams taking part. Loretanics were the youngest team at the venue, with most other teams made up of mixed-age clubs or secondary school pupils.

After the opening ceremony, the team attended their Robot Design and Innovation Project judging session, spending 25 minutes presenting to a panel of four judges and answering questions.

They then moved to the robotics table for a practice session with a judge before beginning their three timed robot games and team build project.

During the three three-minute judged robot games, the team completed a series of programmed challenges, adjusting their code between rounds where needed. They scored 85 points in game one, 65 points in game two and 85 points in game three. Staff highlighted the strong team spirit shown by pupils, who supported one another throughout.

In the afternoon the team completed a second build assignment, based on the theme of which artefact might be unearthed in the year 4026 to represent life today. Loretanics designed and built a mini computer for this task.

Although the team did not win a category at the closing ceremony, each pupil received a Lego medal and they returned to London by train for an end-of-trip meal at The Hard Rock Café.

The group described the trip as a success and will now focus on introducing Lego Robotics to Year 5 pupils, teaching them how to code using Spike software and complete robot game missions.

Staff expressed their thanks to Mr Devincenzi-Clemens for his work in preparing the pupils and organising the trip.