A team of budding engineers from a County Durham primary school are celebrating after reaching for the stars in a LEGO competition.
And one team member from Brandon Primary School is hoping victory in the FIRST LEGO League Challenge Regional Finals will be a step towards her ambition to become the first person on Mars!
The Brandon Believers LEGO Club, comprising nine to 11-year-old pupils, competed against other teams to design, build, and program a LEGO robot to complete a series of missions.
It was a challenge that especially appealed to Eriife Adeniji, whose ambition is to be an astronaut and the first person on Mars.
Eriife, aged nine, said: “In space, you have to do lots of repairing things, lots of making sure things work the right way, so this will probably be useful. But I don’t think I’ll be on Mars until I’m about 35.
“When the judges announced we’d won, it was like a dream, it was magical.”
Her teammate Owen Johnson added: “We were a bit nervous, but mostly excited. We didn’t go in expecting to win, we just wanted to do our best and have a good day!”
The contest, organised by Nissan, is an international competition that gives young people the opportunity to excel in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering, and maths.
This was the third year the school has taken part in the contest, and has previously earned a Judges’ Award and a Core Values Award.
The team – which is sponsored by the Reece Foundation and supported by the Shakespeare Trust – will now go on to compete at the National LEGO League final in April.
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As well as being named North East champions, the Brandon Believers also earned the Robot Performance Award in recognition of their skills, while teachers Paige Ward and Laura Gorley won the Coach’s Award.
Paige said: “I’m just so proud of the children – there were a lot of happy tears! They worked so hard for this, and it was wonderful to see how the values they learn at school – Believe, Achieve, Succeed, and Inspire – transferred to the competition.
“It was a phenomenal day, and we can’t wait for the final!”
