Saturday 24 January saw us host the very first VEX V5 Robotics Competition at Bedford School, marking an exciting milestone in the development of our robotics programme.
VEX V5 is an internationally recognised robotics competition in which teams design, build and code completely bespoke robots to take on a series of complex engineering challenges. Competitors must think creatively and act strategically as they work both with and against other custom‑built robots throughout the competition day.
This event comes after an exceptionally busy season for our teams, who have taken part in five competitions over the past couple of months, many of which required 6.00am starts on Saturdays and Sundays to travel across the region. The boys’ commitment, enthusiasm and sheer determination to improve their engineering and programming skills have been outstanding.
A Fantastic Turnout for our First Bedford Competition
Our inaugural Bedford competition welcomed 13 schools from across the country, including:
- Haileybury
- John Warner School, Hoddesdon
- HABS Boys’ School
- City of London School
- Queen Elizabeth School, Barnet
- King Henry VIII School, Coventry
The atmosphere throughout the day was buzzing with creativity and technical problem‑solving as students taking part worked to refine their robots under competition conditions.
Across the course of the event, the Bedford boys demonstrated impressive teamwork, planning iterative development. They continually added new features, adjusted their designs and rewrote code to improve their robots’ performance – all hallmarks of high‑quality engineering thinking.
Thanks to the support of corporate sponsors from our Old Bedfordian and parent communities – UK Exchangers Ltd and Form IT Solutions – the teams have been able to make significant enhancements to their robots this season, including:
- Upgrading from steel to aluminium frames, making the robots lighter and more agile
- Purchasing new tools and motors, transitioning from a four‑wheel to a six‑wheel drive system
- Adding an advanced pneumatics kit
- Acquiring a ‘hero’ bot, giving pupils a robust base model to experiment and learn from
- Covering competition entry fees
- Providing a brand-new Bedford School robotics t-shirts and jumpers for boys representing the school.
These improvements not only elevated our competitive capabilities but also gave the boys greater opportunities to learn and experiment.
Reflecting on the achievement, our Director of Digital Learning, Paul Scullion, said, “This event has been the culmination of many months of planning and testing to introduce Bedford School to the competition league of VEX V5. It showed the boys what they can achieve and gave them the opportunity to put their hard work, building the bots, to the test. It has been great to see the team and their skills develop during the season, including working with the Fourth Form boys as they have developed a practice robot for the first time.”
Looking Forward
Hosting our first competition marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for robotics at Bedford School. With growing expertise, improved equipment and strong sponsor support behind them, our boys are well positioned to build on their achievements and continue to push the boundaries of what they can create.
We extend our sincere thanks once again to UK Exchangers Ltd and Form IT Solutions for making this programme possible, and congratulate all the boys for their hard work, enthusiasm and continuous learning throughout the season.
