Liverpool schools go head-to-head in robot challenge

Two schools from All Saints Multi Academy Trust, The Academy of St Nicholas (ASN) and The Academy of St Francis Assisi (ASFA), went head-to-head against other Liverpool schools in a unique robot challenge.

The schools each had a team of four students, made up of Year 10s from ASN and Year 9s from ASFA. Joining them were also teams from West Derby School and North Liverpool Academy.

The VEX IQ Challenge was held at North Liverpool Academy and tasked students with designing and building a robot within their team in a game-based engineering competition.

In a series of different tasks, students programmed two robots to compete in 60-second long teamwork matches, working collaboratively to score points.

The teams also competed in the robot skills challenge where one robot takes the field to score as many points as possible. These matches consist of driving skills matches, which are entirely driver controlled, and programming skills matches which are autonomous with limited human interaction.

Both ASN and ASFA were new to the challenge but that didn’t deter them, with ASN winning in the overall play off. The triumphant team was awarded trophies whilst ASFA’s impressive performance saw them win two drones and a Raspberry Pi.

Mr Adam Rooney, head of computing at The Academy of St Nicholas, added: “I am extremely proud of the ASN team winning The VEX IQ Challenge! They worked very hard from the start and proved they were a solid team that could solve any problem thrown their way.”

Mrs Jessica Haig, subject leader of ICT at The Academy of St Francis Assisi, said: “It was great for the schools within the Trust to take part in this exciting competition and develop new skills. Our Year 9 team particularly enjoyed playing against students in the year above them and look forward to taking part again next year.”

As part of their ongoing commitment to students, both schools will now be adding robotics to their extra-curricular and enrichment programmes.