Around 460 school children put their coding skills to the test when they took part in challenges to program their own Lego robots, at an annual contest held at RNAS Culdrose.
The event was jointly organised by Cornwall Council’s Education Business Partnership and the Royal Navy and held in an aircraft hangar at the naval helicopter base near Helston.
Now in its fifth year – the third at the air station – the First Lego League South West Regional Final encourages children into learning skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (known as STEM).
Held over two days, 48 school teams from across Cornwall took part in a series of challenges. Their Lego robots roved around a set course - pushing levers, releasing blocks and scooping up Lego mini-figures. All the children were either in their last year of primary school or first year of secondary school.
Three teams will now head to the national finals:
- BB Lego League Girls from Bishop Bronescombe were the Day 1 champions, and winners of the robot performance award with a score of 260.
- Jelly Friends from Penpol were the Day 2 champions, ranking first in core values, innovation project, robot design and second in robot performance (290).
- Darite Marine Marvels from Darite were the best performing runner-up, coming second overall on Day 2 and winning the robot performance award with the highest robot performance score over the two days – 310.
Commander Richie Turrell, RNAS Culdrose’s executive officer and second-in-command, thanked all the pupils, teachers, organisers and industry partners for their enthusiasm in making the event a success.
He said: “We’ve been really privileged to host and welcome schools from across Cornwall here to Culdrose for the First Lego League.
“This is a great STEM outreach event for children in coding and building Lego robots, and running them around a course. The winners from here will go on to compete nationally and possibly to the internationals to represent their country in Lego League.
“We’ve had around 460 children take part over two days and we’ve got Royal Navy personnel here working alongside the team from Cornwall Council as well as our industry partners who are supporting the event.
“One of the core principles of the Royal Navy is teamwork. That ethos is evident here today, not just in the organisation but also in the hard work by the children themselves to compete and take part.”
The venue was the aircraft hangar of 700X Naval Air Squadron, the Royal Navy’s drone experts and a selection of remotely-piloted air systems was on display for the children to learn about this latest technology.
There were also games and activities run by staff from Google, Lockheed Martin, Cornwall Airport Newquay, Kier, UK Civil Aviation Authority, Cognition Learning, Tec Girls, Player Ready, and Cornwall Libraries, as well as a science show by Mad Science and support from Western Medical Services.
There was additional sponsorship by The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Leonardo, Soroptimist International (St Austell & District), Watson Marlow, SERCO, Rowe IT, Morson, Digital Futures, Safran Helicopter Engines and Ascent Flight Training.
Press release sent out by RNAS Culdrose on March 14, 2025.