Prenton High School for Girls is looking to take part in its third international RoboCup final

For the third year running Prenton High School for Girls is looking to send a team to the Robocup International Finals to be held in Graz, Austria, July 2009.

Prenton High School for Girls was first introduced to RoboCup by the Discovery CLC in autumn 2006. A number of teams of four pupils competed against each other by way of introduction to Robotics using the lego Mindstorm Robots. The teams tackled the Soccor Robotics Challenge and the Rescue Challenge. Subsequent to this the school made use of kit borrowed from the CLC and put forward two teams early in the spring term 2007 to the Wirral Regional Finals. Teams progressed from this stage to take part in the National Finals and from here went on to take part in the International Finals.

In their first ever attempt at the RoboCup Competition the Prenton High School Team progress all the way to the International Finals,  Atlanta, USA,  in July 2007. As the only girls team in their category, the teams came an excellent thirteenth in their category.

Flush with the success of their visit to the USA, the school entered new teams into the Wirral, National and International Finals 2008. This time the international final was in Suzhou, China. Two teams competed, a year nine team in the Junior Category 7-14 and a year 10 team in the Secondary Category 15-19. It was the trip of a life time. Click here for a blog of their experience.

In autumn 2008 and for the third year running Prenton High School has made use of the services of the Discovery CLC to run heats for who will progress in 2009 to the Wirral, National and International Finals. Competition among the teams is fierce as each team competes to be selected for the next trip of a lifetime! This time to Graz, in Austria, where the International Finals will be held in July, 2009. Given the commitment of the staff at Prenton High School there is little doubt that the pupils will indeed progress through all the stages. As is the nature of any events undertaken by schools, it is the dedication of John O'Neill, the school physics teacher, and management commitment from Pat Lofthouse, head of science, that makes things happen.

In the Wirral Finals the teams will be competing against teams entered by Mosslands High School for Boys (Brian Taylor), St Anselms (Paul Davies), Ridgeway High School (Tom Kearns) and Pensby High School for Girls (Daren Fairhurst).

The Discovery CLC wishes to thank Steve Thomas, National Consultant and Robotics Guru, for his invaluable advice and support to the CLC in the delivery of the robotics workshops. Steve will once again act as MD for the Regional Finals taking place at the Discovery CLC in January 2009.