'Nail-biting' Lego victory gets boys to final

A group of boys will represent their county in a national Lego contest after their robot beat more than 20 other schools in a "nail-biting" contest.

The five, who called their team End-Tech, from Endon High School, Staffordshire, won their regional contest over other groups with one coming from as far away as Bradford.

One of the team, Malachi, said this was their second win in a row at this stage but the contest this time was tighter due to "teams being better this year".

They will now represent Staffordshire at the first Lego League UK National Final later in the year.

For their victory, at Newcastle College, their robot had to complete several tasks such as lifting, winding up and destroying various objects.

The five spent time during and after school coding and building it, while adding improvements to the machine along the way.

"We've got a whole different robot with colour sensors this time, that makes it a bit easier to use" said Owen.

Malachi added: "We've swapped to a new coding software that uses Python so it's much more accurate than it used to be".

Over the course of the contest, they gained points for completing the challenges set by the judges, including having to give a presentation about the robot they had built for the day.

James, who described the day as "nail biting", said: "It came down to the wire, there wasn't much between any of the teams we are all good teams it's just all about meeting new people and participating."

The team will now go on to represent the county at the national tournament in Harrogate.

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