King David Jewish Primary School recently hosted a robotics competition, with students competing for a place in a national competition.
King David Jewish Primary School recently hosted the VEX IQ Robotics Competition, the only Jewish school to have ever done so. For the last two years, Jonathon Simons, Owner of Code Inventorz, has been running a robotics club for the children at the school and is the onus behind the school hosting the competition.
Jonathon explained to us how the competition worked: “VEX releases a competition every single year and you must design a robot based on the competition as a skilled game. This year’s competition was called Full Volume. They had to design a robot that has an intake which can pick up different shaped blocks and score them into a goal. The beauty of it is that they have to do an autonomous event, so as well as using radio controls to control the robot they actually have to code the steps that the robot has to take. The kids were randomly teamed with other schools. No one is ever working against each other; they’re working together to get the most points.”
Both the robotic clubs and the competition are beneficial to the children’s development and prospects: “The club is really orientated around working together, solving problems, making up the design, and communicating clearly. In this country, in STEM engineering, there’s a huge deficit in jobs. In the club, you’re building up those future skills in the children.” Clearly the club is having an effect, as pupils Danny Bentlley, Theo Benson, and Freddie Winburn, won a spot in the national competition.