Our Royal Institution Engineering Masterclass was a great success and STEM ambassadors from Brunel University came to help us create a series of fun challenges for our students.

We offer a thriving STEM learning pathway and recently opened a centre which was built to compliment our state-of-the-art science labs. This facility gives provision to students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

This spring we held our first Royal Institution Engineering Masterclass of the year and world’s smallest programmable robot came to school.

An interschool event, the masterclass saw students from Brunel University come to help us create a series of races and challenges for our pupils.

They demonstrated how Ozbots, small robots, follow a track, reading coloured stickers to change direction and speed, the series began with an exciting bot race. Ozobot is one of the smallest programmable robots in the world, measuring just 2.54 cm in diameter and height but equipped with a powerful brain. They are a fun, easy way to get students comfortable with robotics and programming.

The quickest Ozbot completed the track in 19 seconds delivering victory for the Glebe Primary School team. The second task was to build a strong bridge from four small bars of chocolate. Teams used flasks of hot water to melt the edges of the chocolate weld them together. The stickiest team by far was Holy Trinity School and Greenfields School stuck all their chocolate into one “mega bar” which looked very strong.  After testing the completed bridges, Priestmead School’s bridge proved the strongest, holding a hefty 800g.