A primary school in Abergavenny is celebrating after tasting success in the first ever Lego League ‘Unearthed’ competition.

Cross Ash Primary’s STEM Lego Club, led by Mr Williamson, invites pupils to work collaboratively to bring their creations to life in the form of those small plastic bricks most parents only feel the impact of while they’re buried in the carpet.

But the children have taken their talent and skills to the next level when they were named champions at the Regional Finals of Lego League’s ‘Unearthed’ regional competition in St Fagans, just outside of Cardiff.

“This project was initially made possible by the Monmouthshire Local Authority providing STEM resources and staff training for all schools,” said Head Teacher, Mrs Presdee.

“We were so excited to get the chance to use this equipment with all of our children throughout the school and they love working with it. Our PTFA then funded us to take part in the Lego League Competition.”

The challenge for the team of young builders was to develop a robot capable of meeting the strict competition criteria and performing a range of different functions. All of these had to be coded by the children themselves, and in the process pupils also developed an innovative response to transforming the field of archaeology.

For the team, the journey into learning more about Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths through using Lego doesn’t end here. They will soon be travelling to Harrogate at the end of April to compete in the National Finals of the Lego League.

Local businesses agreed to provide the financial support for the pupils’ trip after they made a pitch to them to secure the funding for the exciting opportunity.

“The group who have worked with Mr Williamson have shown such dedication to this project,” Mrs Presdee continued.

“They have been staying after school and using their lunch breaks to problem solve and work on this together. They also have to prepare their presentation for Harrogate where they will demonstrate their great ideas and robots through an interactive display.”

“I am so grateful to Mr Williamson for enabling the children to have this opportunity. They are so excited about this project and are justifiably proud of their success.”

The budding engineers of the future will be joined by a mix of staff and parents to support them on the journey.

Cross Ash Primary has extended its thanks to the PTFS, Red Sky at Night Campsite, Synergy Plastics Ltd and Wessex Archaeology Insurance for their contributions, which have been instrumental in helping the team progress.

The Cross Ash pupils have already displayed incredible teamwork, technical knowledge, problem-solving skills and resilience along the way. But if the team wins again in Harrogate, they will go on to compete in the USA and take their project to the world.