Back in February, Tag received an email from Ian Cameron, a teacher at a local primary school here in Dundee. Blackness Primary School had made it through to the National UK Finals of the VEX Robotics IQ Challenge following a successful regional competition, but were in need of some support to get eight of their code club students there. Naturally, we were happy to contribute to the amazing fundraising efforts of the children and Blackness Primary School staff. In little under three weeks, the school managed to raise funds to support their trip south from Scotland to Telford - hoorah!
The challenge, hosted in the Telford International Centre, was attended by 80 primary and secondary schools, with only two teams from Scotland in attendance, both of which were primaries.
After a fun-filled few days, the budding coders earned themselves the Best Build Trophy, as well as 17th place overall in the challenge. On top of this, they also received the Design Award trophy at regional level qualifiers, recognising the effort they had put in to coming up with an original design. As the only Scottish school to receive a trophy or acknowledgement, we couldn’t be more proud of Blackness representing Dundee! 🙌
Ian Cameron said “the impact of this will be wider than just the eight pupils involved. They will be coming back to present to the school, inspiring the next generation of engineers and computer programmers” - amazing 👏. Blackness Primary Code Club has gone from strength to strength with their waiting list doubling over the last three weeks. With 50% of regular attendees being female - it’s great to see both young girls and boys inspired to get involved with coding and engineering.
A huge congratulations to Blackness Primary School pupils and staff for all of their achievements so far. Tag CEO, Marc Williamson, said “We were delighted to support Blackness Primary School in attending the National VEX Robotics Challenge, it’s incredibly inspiring to see the next generation getting excited and involved in STEM subjects. We wish the team and all involved the best of luck for 2021!”.