First® Lego® League Challenge is a global competition for young people aged 9 to 16, run in the UK by the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

We are delighted to announce our continued support of this season’s First® Lego® League Challenge tournament inspiring young people to understand the basics of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) by applying their skills in an exciting competition while building habits of learning, confidence, and teamwork skills along the way.

This year’s Sussex regional tournament will take place on Thursday 8th February at London Gatwick’s new STEM Centre, where ten teams of students from schools across the South East will take up the challenge on the infamous ‘Challenge Mat’ with their bespoke Lego® programmable SPIKE Prime or EV3 robots, for a chance to claim the coveted title of First® Lego® League 2024 regional champions.

This affable competition engages young people in research, teamwork, problem-solving, coding, and engineering – building and programming a LEGO® robot that navigates the missions of a robot game. This seasons new MASTERPIECE ℠ challenge, will test students to imagine and innovate new ways to create and communicate art across the globe.

The event will be supported by STEM Ambassadors officiating as referees and judges to ensure no ‘foul play’ is taking place during the tournament. They will ensure the teams code their robots to complete the practical challenges and design and build adaptations to fix onto their robots to maximise their performance.

Kyla Winter, First® Lego® League Delivery Project Lead, of Canterbury Christ Church’s STEM Hub said: “We are excited to facilitate this world-renowned event that allows young people to demonstrate their STEM skills by building and programming a robot to tackle tough challenges to complete a set of missions whilst presenting their work to teams of judges.

“We’re extremely grateful to our STEM Ambassadors for investing their time and sharing their knowledge to inspire the next generation of young people to consider careers in STEM sectors, and to London Gatwick for hosting the tournament in their fantastic new STEM Centre.  We wish all the teams the best of luck and look forward to meeting them and seeing what their robots can do on the day.”

Steve Kelso, Head of Engineering, London Gatwick commented: "I am excited to welcome the First® Lego® League Regional Final to our fantastic new STEM Centre here at London Gatwick. To see the fantastic creative thinking, teamworking and problem solving skills on display from the students who are investing their time into STEM is really inspiring. This is the perfect platform to give students an insight into potential future engineering careers.”

Event Supporter, London Gatwick is kindly offering a bespoke behind the scenes tour for the regional winning school, which will include a coach tour airside, a roof walk over the Pier 6 bridge and a visit to engineering areas to get a behind the scenes look into what is needed to run a major international airport. The winning school will go on to compete at the First® Lego® League National Finals at the Harrogate Convention Centre on Saturday 20th April 2024.

This year’s participating schools are: Windlesham House School, Reigate St Mary's Preparatory School, Dunottar School (two teams), Harris Academy Wimbledon, Uckfield Community Technology College (two teams), Reigate School, Cheam High School, Durrington and  High School.

The event is supported by The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and delivered by The STEM Hub.