Over the year, five dedicated boys – Gene Baker, Thomas Hendry, Ilyas Hosein, Jonathan Pugsley, Georgi Savkov-Lin (Y6) and Aaryan-Krsh Sagar (Y7) – have worked for an hour after school every Saturday and during their lunch breaks on Mondays to build and prepare two robots to compete in the Vex IQ Build Day and Competition: Slapshot!
Ahead of the competition, the boys joined other local schools at Roseland Primary School in Hertfordshire for a build day to see how everyone was progressing, explore new ideas and have fun finalising their builds, programming and driving their creations.
Then, it was on to the competition two weeks later and the challenge of this year’s obstacle course: Slapshot, incorporating dispensers, scoring discs, a fence and goal zones. In two teams of three, each Bedford Prep team, working side by side with a team from another school, needed to strategize collaboratively to score the most points together. Accuracy and precision were also vital.
Mrs Dale told us, “The boys did brilliantly! Using the VEX IQ robotics system, which allowed them to use motors, gears, modular construction pieces, sensors and more, the boys created wildly different robots for the competition. They worked well throughout the day, adjusting their strategy with their partnered team for each match. While they may have missed out on the top prize this time round, the competition day proved a great experience, and the boys are already keen to get started on next year’s competition, asking, “Can we have sessions three times a week?” Beyond robotics, it was also great to see the boys practising their teamwork, leadership, communication and troubleshooting skills and, I’m proud to say, demonstrating every one of our Future Skills.”
Our thanks go to Mr Stuart Higham from The John Warner School and his Year 9 students for organising and running the scrimmage. The Year 9 students called the teams up, judged, scored and umpired, with teaching staff to assist, if necessary, making for a brilliant event for students led by students. Thanks also go to Mr Roberts for driving and supporting the boys during both days and to Mrs Aldridge for supporting the boys in building their robots.
