Sheffield Girls’ Hosts Sheffield LEGO Robotics Primary Competition
On Friday 4th October, Sheffield Girls’ Infant & Junior School transformed into a hub of technological innovation as we played host to the Sheffield LEGO Robotics Primary Competition. This exciting event brought together young minds from across the city, with teams representing 10 different schools to compete for Gold, under the watchful eye of our expert judging panel.
During the competition, pupils were introduced to the fundamentals of robotics before working collaboratively to plan designs, programme and debug their robots. Teams were then tasked with using resilience, teamwork and complex problem-solving to score points in mini relay-style events, racing against the clock.
Our judging panel comprised of experts from leading tech and business companies: Rayna Bocheva, Technology Graduate at HSBC; Phillip Tate, Head of Infrastructure Architecture, Commercial Banking Technology at HSBC; Eric Tsz Lok Leung, Design Engineer at MetLase; Lee Long, Senior Project Manager at SISK Contractors; Jay Brown, Mechatronics Apprentice at AMRC; David Pooley, Senior Product Manager at RWS; and Hannah Massey, Software Development Engineer for Reuters Imagen, who was also our guest speaker.
The day culminated in a presentation and prize-giving ceremony - stay tuned to find out the winning teams!
Dawn Pooley, Sheffield Girls’ Infant & Junior School Digital Lead, commented: “It’s been an absolute delight to witness so many budding robotics enthusiasts working together to solve complex problems—and most importantly, having fun! Events like today show the incredible potential of our digital citizens of the future.” Lucy Williams, Sheffield Girls’ Infant & Junior School Science Lead, added: “Pupils demonstrated creativity, resilience, and a true passion for learning. I have no doubt that some of these young minds will go on to shape the future of technology.”
Our hosting of this competition is the latest development in our ongoing commitment to being at the forefront of robotics education. In March 2020, we were chosen as the first UK WER (World Educational Robotics) hub for primary-aged children, and robotics is well-embedded in our curriculum and co-curricular programme. Sheffield Girls’ students have achieved regional and national success in robotics challenges (EEP Robotics Challenge 2017; EEP Robotics Challenge 2019; EEP Robotics Challenge 2023) and Robotics Club remains a popular lunch club for many senior students. Our recent shortlisting for the ‘Best Use of Technology’ category at the Tes Awards 2024 recognised our commitment to ensuring all Sheffield Girls’ students are technically literate and passionate about problem-solving using technology.
Today’s Sheffield Lego Robotics Primary Competition was a wonderful opportunity for us to share our subject expertise whilst providing space for more pupils to engage with robotics in a fun, challenging environment.
We are looking forward to another opportunity to open our doors in a few weeks’ time. Our Infant and Junior School Open Week begins on Monday 4th November and we will be hosting prospective families to our school throughout the week. Everyday life at our Infant & Junior School is characterised by curiosity, exploration and fun, and we can’t wait for prospective families to experience this first-hand by seeing our school in action. Please click here to register your interest in our Open Week.
An enormous thank you to everyone from participating schools today: Hillsborough; Mansel; St Marie’s; St Josephs’; Marlcliffe; Arbourthorne; Nethergreen; Totley; and Ecclesall Schools. And a huge thank you to those who have supported today’s event: HSBC, Meet and Code and Reuters Imagen.