The Hyper Bots brilliantly represented the school in a thrilling UK National Championship VEX V5 Robotics Competition at the Telford International Centre this weekend, after showing incredible commitment and dedication over the past 12 months and after forming a winning alliance with Durham Johnston School's team 54732B Team 1 at Tanfield in January to qualify for the Nationals in only our second year competing in the VEX tournament. I would particularly like to thank the parents of all 14 team members at the competition who gave up their time over the half term holiday to give the children the opportunity to take part, and to everyone who has been kind enough to make donations to Framwellgate School Durham's robotics teams. Their success this year would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of parents, carers, families and friends, and of the Reece Foundation who generously provided the essential VEX V5 equipment to get us started.
Over the 2-day competition in Telford, team 10042F Hyper Bots competed in 12 hard-fought qualifying matches in the Middle School competition - which is for students in Year 10 or younger - winning 7 of their 12 High Stakes matches and ranking an incredible 10th out of the 30 participating teams.
Following an unpredictable, highly tactical and extremely stressful (!) alliance selection process, the Hyper Bots chose to partner with team 6493B T-ROB2 from Tanfield School, forming a Durham alliance to compete in the knock-out rounds which determined the tournament finalists and ultimate champions.
The Hyper Bots / T-ROB2 alliance triumphed in the first knock-out round, winning an exciting nail-biting match by 18 points to 17 and becoming one of only 8 Middle School teams to reach the quarter finals. This meant experiencing the excitement of competition on a main-stage game arena in front of a large audience and live-stream cameras alongside the High School finals matches! Although the Durham alliance were ultimately beaten in their quarter final match by the eventual UK National Championship runners up, the Hyper Bots were proud to be awarded a trophy for one of only two Judges’ Awards in recognition of their outstanding team spirit, hard work and determination to overcome obstacles, including their efforts to raise funds in order to help them to compete at the highest level possible. I think that the judges were also impressed by the sheer number of students involved in the Hyper Bots team and present at the event - by far the largest team there!
Planning starts this week for next year's robotics competitions. Current Year 8 students moving up from First LEGO League to VEX V5 to work with current Year 9s, and current Year 7 students will begin to prepare for the 2025/26 First LEGO League robotics challenge. We are also hoping to be able secure funding for a second VEX V5 robot to support a Year 12 (High School) team and an additional LEGO Spike Prime robotics set to enable more students to benefit from the life-changing and memorable experience of working as a team to develop strategies, design solutions and overcome obstacles to compete against teams from schools across the UK and beyond. The 2025/26 VEX V5 competition game will be revealed at the VEX World Championships in Dallas, Texas in May... maybe next year?!