Select Education Warrington Office Candidate Reaches Final of Lego International Robotics Competition

Catherine Scott, a candidate from Select Education's Warrington branch, has built her way to the fin

Select Education Warrington Office Candidate Reaches Final of Lego International Robotics Competition

Students from Halton Pupil Referral Unit compete against teams from around the world

Catherine Scott, a candidate from Select Education's Warrington branch, has built her way to the final of Lego international robotics competition, First Lego League'. Catherine, who works at the Halton KS4 Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) as a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator and Science Co-ordinator, entered a team from her PRU in the competition last September. After reigning at both the regional and national finals, the Halton team secured a place to compete in the worldwide championship, taking place in Holland later this year.

Although the Science and Technology Department at the PRU in Halton has limited resources, the pupils were determined to participate in this international event. Students who are part of the PRU no longer attend mainstream school due to either behavioural or emotional difficulties, as a result, their application and subsequent sponsorship was warmly welcomed, as no PRU team had previously entered the competition.

Pictured are, compere Paul Sleem (left), BBC presenter Louise Brady (right), Catherine Scott's son, Jack (front), together with students from Halton's Pupil Referral Unit.

The theme for this year's competition was Ocean Odyssey' and required entrants to design, build and programme a robot to complete various tasks from boarding a boat to launching a mini submarine. The contest focused on team building, problem solving, creativity and analytical thinking. Judges were suitably impressed with the Halton team's robot and pupils were aptly dressed as turtles for the regional finals.

Catherine Scott commented: 'I found the challenge an overwhelming prospect and felt strongly that all students from across the country should be involved, no matter where they were being taught. It was daunting but we had a team of six 14 16-year-olds who wanted to succeed and we all worked extremely hard to achieve this'.