The Harlequins Foundation, in partnership with Sphero, are delighted to launch “Robot Rugby”, a world first coding experience for schools.
‘Robot Rugby’ enables pupils to collaborate with their peers and explore the world of S.T.E.M whilst gaining a unique and exciting insight into careers within high performance sport.
As a member of the Skills Builder Partnership, The Harlequins Foundation are hugely passionate about using sport to help young people to develop essential decision-making and collaboration skills such as; Creativity, Problem Solving, Speaking & Listening. By taking a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a professional sports team, ‘Robot Rugby’ seeks to inspire and excite young people about the importance of STEM in elite sport, all whilst providing pupils with hands-on experience of coding and robotics.
Mr Lee, Headteacher at Deer Park Primary School, said: “It was really amazing, such a well designed and expertly led piece of STEM learning.
“The children can’t wait for the next session!”
The Harlequins Foundation’s Schools & Inclusion Manager, Matthew Williams added: “Sport has the ability to excite and inspire young people, and it’s reach can extend far beyond simply running around with a ball.
“That’s why we’re really excited to launch ‘Robot Rugby’ as part of a wider STEM offer for local schools. Empowering pupils to explore together and create their own Harlequins moments using robotics is something we’re all really proud to be a part of.”
‘Robot Rugby’ coding sessions are carefully aligned to the current curriculum. During the course of the day, pupils are introduced to coding using the Sphero Edu learning app where our facilitators help to guide their learning using 3 coding canvasses; Draw, Blocks and Text.
After that, they have the opportunity to explore how to use code to train their robot to perform a Lap of Honour, side steps, score tries and counter=attack inspired by some of our Harlequins superstars! There’s even the chance to recreate some of the weekend’s action and to come up with some exciting robot celebrations too!
If you’d like to find out how your school could take part in a ‘Robot Rugby’ coding experience day with The Harlequins Foundation, please get in touch with Matthew Williams here.