WORK WITH WESTFIELD PRIMARY

As part of Fosse Way school's specialist School Status they are commited to working with partner primary schools to enhance and support their curriculum.

Another outcome of the initial technology teachers meeting was Rob, our technology technician, supporting Westfield primary school's First Lego League entry.

The First Lego League is an annual robotics competition in which the children have to build and programme a robot using a selection of components. In competition the robots must complete a range of tasks on a map to score points, testing the problem solving ability and creativity of the pupils.

The year’s theme for the competition was the ocean environment.

Getting into the Ocean Theme with oversize Fish and Chips!

The Westfield team was run by one of the schools year five teachers, Mya with support from Rob and other Westfield staff members. Pupils attended twice weekly building and programming sessions over terms one and two.

"Yes we could put on antennae just like this! "  The planning stages

The competition took place on the twenty seventh of November at Bath University. At the competition stage over thirty teams came together to playoff against each other, the groups are marked not only by the points they score but by the team spirit they exhibit, their sense of sportsmanship, understanding of their robot and by a presentation that they perform on the topic of the competition.

A group pep talk and brainstorming.

The Westfield team who decided to call themselves the Westfield Ocean Waders (W.O.W) delivered a presentation on the depletion of fish stocks and possible remedies for the situation. The W.O.W robot had an exciting start, when it gained the third highest marks in the whole competition and held the team pole position throughout the first and second rounds.

One of the trials - tricky maneuvring ahead!

Unfortunately the team’s high spirits at their initial victory got the better of them, and the slightly overconfident W.O.W team got knocked out of the competition in the quarterfinals. The team finished in sixth position, which was an impressive result for the schools first foray into the event. The W.O.W’s also received the Team spirit award; the large yellow Lego trophy was presented to the team by Michaela Stratton.       

Showing off their team medals! Well done!