This season kicked off in late September with the first VEX EDR regional event taking place at The John Warner School. This year, teams have been asked to develop a robot that begins no larger than 18” cubed and does not expand beyond 36”. The aim of the game is to score as many 100mm “cubes” as possible into horizontal tubes as quickly as possible within a 2-minute time limit. Teams will be randomly allied with teams from other schools to compete two against two during a series of qualification matches before selecting final alliance partners for the knockout stages. During the two-minute rounds, teams have 15 seconds to score autonomously, with no human interaction, followed by 1 minute 45 seconds of frantic driver control.

JWS 1 – Continuing the tradition of hosting the first event of any season, John Warner proudly invited 18 teams from as far afield as Malvern, Buckinghamshire and Ilford to compete in this season's game of robotics – Push Back. The event ran very smoothly thanks to the efforts of our fantastic volunteers who are made up of VEX alumni teams and give up their free time to ensure that future generations can participate in robotics events!

It was an amazing start to the season for the John Warner teams with 3116J in second place after qualifiers, 3116D in third and 3116Z being selected by the top ranked team. This meant that John Warner had teams in all three top seeded positions for the knockout phase. The teams were made up of the following students:

An amazing run of form for 3116G, who had tweaked their robot as the competition went on, allowed them to defeat the second and third seeds to make it through to the final. 3116Z had a much simpler run to set up the showdown between the 1st seed and 5th seed. Unfortunately for the Year 9 boys, the top seed demonstrated why they deserved that slot and ran out winners by 87–39 points. I'd like to thank all the volunteers and parents who came along to support and help out on the day. Without this help, these events would not be able to run as successfully as they do! 

Beechgrove regional 11 October – A long drive down to the beautiful countryside of Kent for four of our robotics teams, with a focus on building upon the success of the previous tournament. 3116J and 3116D were having good days with 5 wins from 8 apiece, but sadly 3116G and 3116C were struggling with only two wins each and several technical issues. 3116J would go on to the semi-final only to be knocked out by their schoolmates 3116D, who subsequently qualified for the final only to be beaten in a close match, 62-33. The teams learned a lot, including the importance of shielding your electronics when 3116G suffered a smashed controller in one of the qualifying matches. 

Images: picturesque Kent, 3116C in the semi final, 3116J and 3116D in the other semi final

JWS 2 27 October – With half term upon us, it was a golden opportunity to invite teams back to John Warner for a mini tournament. Just a handful of teams made it to the event, with the furthest travelling all the way from Gordonstoun in Scotland! The day went well, with three of the top four teams representing John Warner and our two Sixth Form teams making it through to contest the final. The 2nd seed teams of 3116D, paired with a team from Queen Elizabeth School, made light work of the final, breezing to a 70-21 points win. 3116D also picked up the Innovate Award, and 3116Z narrowly missed out on the Skills Trophy by a meagre 4 points, posting a score of 70 on their two runs. 

Winning team 3116D, the final field ready for scoring, teams taking part in skills runs

SLBS and Coventry 22 November – Two competitions at opposite ends of the country, eight teams and two minibuses (just!). It was nearly mission impossible, but thanks to the efforts of Mr Andy Bolton, we managed to field all eight of our robotics teams across two events: one in Kent at Simon Langton Boys' School near Canterbury and the other at King Henry the Eighth School in Coventry. The events could not have been more different, with 35 teams attending Coventry and just half that number at Simon Langton, who were hosting their last ever event. The teams all performed well, with 3116E and 3116G both making separate semifinals but sadly losing out, and 3116C finishing 3rd in the table and being selected by the 2nd seed. They also made it through to a big semifinal but narrowly lost out to some de-scoring late on, with the match ending 62-41. 3116Z did pick up the Judges' Award for their engineering notebook and teamwork during the event. 

3116G in their distinctive yellow hoodies, 3116E taking the win in their ¼ final

3316Z collecting their trophy, 3116Z and 3116j in the semifinal together

UK’s First VEX Robotics League

Due to the increased demand for robotics at The John Warner School, I have been looking at how to expand the program to allow as many of our keen and enthusiastic students to take part as possible. Working alongside VEX UK, I floated the idea of running the UK’s first robotics league—an ongoing competition that would involve local schools working with our students to develop and compete on a regular basis. Back in July, I invited Haileybury, Haberdashers' Boys' School and Haberdashers' Girls' School to be part of the inaugural season and in October, we held our first ever league meeting.

11 teams signed up for the competition across three schools, and we decided to run three qualifier sessions and one grand finale! The qualifier events would each take place at the three schools that were participating, with the finale back at John Warner. Each league event would be a short competition after school for an hour and a half, with every team taking part in four matches. The final event would be two qualifiers and then an alliance selection preceding knockouts until only one alliance remained to be crowned victors. 

Working together over four sessions had enabled the students from across each school to get to know each other, the strengths of their respective robots and the compatibility that would be so vital in the knockout matches. Each team, working from the top of the table down, had the chance to select a partner robot to work with for the remainder of the competition. The bottom two alliances would also have to play off against each other to reach the semi-final, so selection had an added bonus of skipping a round if chosen by a top team.

The final team selection concluded as follows: 1st Alliance 3116Z and 3116G (all John Warner) 2nd Alliance 34071B and 10432B 3rd Alliance 3116D and 3116J 4th Alliance 3116X and 3116E 5th Alliance 3116C and 10432A

In the play-off we lost our Year 8 and Year 11 teams due to a miscommunication in the selection process! Both teams fielded a defensive robot, not really capable of scoring, so the result was almost inevitable as the second Year 11 team, 3116C, posted a 23–9 score alongside their partner Haileybury A. The first semi-final looked like it was going to be a close affair with the second alliance pitched against the third alliance. All strong teams, very capable of defence and scoring well, promised to be a tight match-up. The third alliance of 3116D and 3116J, both John Warner Year 12 teams, got off to a great start by winning the autonomous phase. This proved to be the pivotal moment, even though it was in the first 15 seconds of the match, as 3116D constantly harried any scoring opportunity that their opposition had. 3116J continued to rack up points and the final result was 42–14 to the John Warner alliance!

The second semi-final looked like it could be a foregone conclusion with the previously unbeaten 3116Z paired with the aggressive 3116G against play-off winners 3116C and 10432A. This wasn’t the case though, as both sides scored relatively freely. The final score looked close and initially looked as if the underdogs had pulled a miracle out of the bag ready for Christmas with an initial 50–52 point win. Sadly, a scoring error had credited them incorrectly with a double park and the actual score was returned at 50–30, a valiant effort nonetheless.

The previous match foreshadowed the final as it was clear that something was not quite right with 3116G’s robot. Right from the start their chassis was limping to the right, causing a miss-score in autonomous and handing the early advantage to the 3116D and 3116J alliance. Quick to realise that 3116Z were now undefended, 3116D took advantage of the opportunity to outright bully the larger robot out of any scoring chances. This left 3116J relatively open to score at will and they managed 56 points to 16, essentially by themselves.

This concluded the main matches of the league with 3116D and 3116J becoming the first-ever UK league winners and gaining places at this season's VEX UK National finals!

Aside from the main event, teams also had the opportunity to collect trophies for their design and efforts as decided by the judges. Habs Girls team took home the Judges' Award for their development of a very good robot over the course of the four sessions and 3116J were awarded the Design Award for the engineering logbook they produced to show all the improvements and alterations made along the journey.

Teams also took part in a skills challenge, having three chances to drive their robot for 1 minute and to score as many points solo as they can, followed by an additional minute where the robot must drive unaided in autonomous mode.

3116D took the skills award with a last-ditch autonomous run that gained them enough points to displace 3116Z’s mighty driver score of 49 points!

MBDA Mentor Program – 28 January
Over the past month, we have been supported in promoting engineering, and particularly robotics, by the aerospace company MBDA, who are based in Stevenage. We have Ralph Bull, Isabella Lamprell, Amy Russell, Caitlyn Stacey and Ruby Channon in Year 7 who have been given a kit of parts to assemble from their own designs. They have weekly sessions with their MBDA mentors, who have been showing them how to operate as engineers, following the processes and procedures required to make a difference through engineering. So far, the students have learned how to construct a motorised chassis using different gear ratios for increased speed and are now developing an intake system. They have also been working on programming their design and working very well at communicating as a team. They will have the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned and how they have progressed at an event, again hosted by John Warner, on the 28th of January.

Founders Scholars
Our three Founders scholars, Ethan, Jack and Harrison, have been working hard towards their Engineering Level 3 qualification and have been aided by the recent delivery of equipment that they have ordered through the Worshipful Company of Founders scholarship scheme. The equipment will be fundamental in helping these students complete the qualification over the next few months. What did the students have to say?

Harrison: “I am very grateful for the support the Founders have given me. It has allowed me to access textbooks and other aspects needed for my lessons which I would not have been able to access otherwise.”

Ethan: “I am very grateful for the scholarship funding as it has allowed me to work more efficiently using the technology I purchased. Often all the laptops were booked out at school, but now I can work independently. It has also given me access to many more engineering-related resources that have helped me with my engineering studies.”

The students who attended the lecture also got to join the Founders for dinner and were able to ask probing questions about the lecture after the dinner.

Dennis: “The Warner lecture was a very good opportunity to meet interesting people with a similar passion and understanding of STEM.”

James: “I found the Warner lecture very informative in how the engineering principles I am studying now are applied in the aerospace industry. In addition to this, meeting members of the industry that I want to join was fascinating.”

Jacob: “My experience of the Warner lecture was inspiring; being able to experience the top end of engineering was truly unique.”

Harry: “The Warner lecture was a truly inspirational lecture, which was a true eye-opener to another side of engineering from that which I see in school.”

Ethan: “I thoroughly enjoyed the Founders lecture; as well as having been an interesting topic, I was able to grasp a better understanding of the Concorde. I also learned about what the business stands for from some of the interesting people I met. I found it was a great way to introduce myself to members of the casting industry, as it is a main interest of mine. I can strongly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in engineering in my engineering classes.”

Hivan: “In Year 12 and Year 13, I attended a Founders meeting that brought together engineers and company CEOs; this included a talk on the engineering and manufacturing of Concorde and how significant it was as a step forward for humanity. Experiences like these have shown me the scale and impact of engineering innovation and have motivated me to be part of that progress.”

Future Events

MACH – April
In April, we will be taking a group of Year 12 and 13 Engineers to the MACH show. MACH is the UK’s national exhibition for engineering and manufacturing technologies, held at the NEC Birmingham and organised by the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA). MACH is a large trade show where more than 500 exhibitors show off machine tools, cutting tools, metrology equipment, additive manufacturing (3D printing), robotics and automation, sheet metal and fabrication kit, and manufacturing software. It is aimed at engineers, decision‑makers, buyers and educators interested in current and emerging production technologies. The show includes live demonstrations of complete production systems, often combining CNC machines, robots, conveyors and inspection in working cells. There is a dedicated Automation & Robotics Zone, which focuses on industrial robots, cobots and integration, making it a strong destination for students and teachers wanting to see automation in context.

JWS I Love Robots – February
In February, we will be running our final event of the year for the students to demonstrate their robots and to try and set a final qualifying score for this year's VEX UK National Final, which will take place at the end of February/start of March. Teams will have one last chance to finalise their engineering notebooks, test their autonomous code and drive for glory as the final places for this year's championship are allocated!

Primary Robotics – To be confirmed.