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Primary & Nursery School

Robotics Competition

Robotics Club

Some of the Year 6 children have been taking part in our school robotics club.

LEGO Spike

The children have built robots and then have used their computing skills to program them.

Robotics Competition

They have taken part in a competition against other schools to see how good their skills have become.

FIRST LEGO League Challenge is a global competition for young people aged 9 to 16, run in the UK by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

The Brighton Tournament is organised by Sussex STEM, based at Canterbury Christchurch University, working as part of the STEM Hub.

Each year their are different themes about exercise and movement. Teams that entered the competition received the infamous ‘Challenge Mat’, and unique LEGO Challenge kit to assemble to form ten practical challenges.

Teams also had to code LEGO Mindstorms or Spike robots to complete the practical challenges and design and build adaptations to fix onto their robots to maximise their performance.

These challenges included, pushing LEGO figures on a swing, shooting hoops, lifting weights and finishing off with the well-loved robot dance!

This Years Competition is on Friday 21st January 2022


Sussex STEM @stem4sussex ·Jan 21

Huge congratulations to team 'Dafclen' @harlandsprimary for winning the Rising Stars Award in #FIRSTLEGOLeague #Sussex Challenge.




FIRST LEGO League Challenge Sussex

The FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is a global competition for young people aged 9 to 16, run in the UK by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The Sussex (previously Brighton Tournament) is organised in partnership with the STEM Hub South East, based at Canterbury Christ Church University. And true to form, this year’s tournament, based on the theme Cargo Connect, was a freight load of excitement!

Ten teams initially entered the competition receiving their cargo themed LEGO® Challenge kits to assemble on special mats where the challenges are completed. After assembling the kit, teams meticulously coded LEGO® robots to complete the challenges and adapted their robots to maximise their performance. In addition, teams had to complete project work based on their identification of a real-world problem connected to cargo and illustrate how they imbued the FIRST® LEGO® League core values, including gracious professionalism, throughout their work.

Teams from Harlands Community Primary School in Uckfield and Windlesham House School in Pulborough competed in the tournament final, held virtually, on the 21 January. The Sussex STEM team and the panel of STEM Ambassador judges and referees were treated to a brilliant display of all the students’ hard work and learnt a great deal about cargo in the process via expertly presented statistics and animations.

Thankfully our head referee Dr David James from IET was able to keep pace with the tournament finale of the robot challenges, and newcomer deputy referee Sally McPhee from Stantec helped to adjudicate a few contentious points! Our congratulations to Windlesham House School who were declared the Tournament Champions, and we hope you join us in cheering them on when they represent our region at the National FIRST® LEGO® League Final taking place on Friday 26th February in Harrogate.

To conclude, Sussex STEM would like to say a big thank you to the STEM Ambassador judges including, Mike from Stantec, Tim, Talita from Edwards, and Tim Carter from Niaxo who summed up the event perfectly by saying: “I had an amazing time, seeing what all of the students had worked on. It never fails to amaze me what these young people come up with - they are so hugely skilled and creative!”

Going forward, it is hoped more STEM Ambassadors can get involved by supporting teams and their teacher coaches in person, either with coding robots or project work.


If you would like to offer your support or want to find out how you can encourage your local school to take part, please email askanambassador@canterbury.ac.uk.