Year 6 girls become Quarter Finalists at RoboCupJunior European Championship

In late February, St Mary's Junior School was selected to represent the United Kingdom at the prestigious RoboCupJunior Euro 2019 Robotics Championships in Hannover, Germany during June 2019. Our team of four Year 6 girls were preparing to fly out to Hannover on Thursday 20 June for three days of international level competition in the Primary Rescue Simulation League when, less than 24 hours before departure, we were informed that they would have to compete in the Open Rescue Simulation League instead. This decision was made by the championship organisers because our girls were the only Primary age group team to enter, from the 18 eligible countries across Europe. They also turned out to be the only all girl team, with just two other girls competing in the entire Rescue Simulation League.

The Open Rescue Simulation League is for students aged 14-18, has different rules and is much more complex, but despite this our 11-year-old girls rose to the challenge and were determined to compete with the older teams on equal terms. After a very intense programming session they managed to get to grips with the new requirements and were delighted to win their first match against a team of 17-year-olds from Italy, on the morning of Friday 21 June.

In very quick succession, they then played against teams from Portugal and Croatia. Each of these was a narrow defeat, but their individual match scores more than doubled during the course of this round. Their results were good enough to allow them to take part in a knockout match against another Italian team for a place in the Quarter Finals. We have since learnt that this team, which consisted of four 17-year-old boys, were last year's European Open Rescue Simulation Champions. On Saturday 22 June, our girls won this match by 920 points to 615 points, knocking the Italian team out of the championships and securing a place for themselves in the Quarter Finals.

Shortly after lunch the Quarter Finals began, and despite a valiant effort and a new personal best match score of 980 points, our team lost their match to a very strong Russian team of 18 year old boys, who were the overall highest scorers in the competition at that stage and went on to be crowned European Champions. We were awarded 8th place overall.

Our girls then showed real determination and perseverance when they were teamed up with a German team and a Portuguese team to form a Super Team for a separate competition. Following a collaborative programming session in which three different languages were being spoken, a series of playoff matches took place. The Super Team featuring our girls was awarded 2nd place, and their contribution to this success had clearly won them the respect of their much older new teammates.

On Sunday 23 June, our team were invited to compete in a 'Friendship Tournament' for teams not involved in the Semi Finals of the main competition, before watching the Grand Final and attending the Awards Ceremony.

A true indication of their acceptance into the exclusive European Rescue Simulation Community came with a very unexpected invitation to participate in a monthly 'virtual' tournament, which uses email and Skype Conference Calling to allow teams to compete against each other across the Internet from their own countries. This is an opportunity that we hope to explore in more detail during the next academic year.

Mr. Andrew Severy (Junior School Computer Science Coordinator) said, "I am incredibly proud of our team and their achievements over what have been three extremely intense and exciting days of competition. To become European Championship Quarter Finalists in a league intended for very much older students, having had to cope with a last minute change to a much more complicated set of rules and conditions, is a truly remarkable achievement. The girls have demonstrated incredible teamwork, commitment and maturity, and have never allowed themselves to be daunted or intimidated by the circumstances or the scale of the challenges facing them. Through all of their interactions with the older students and the adult organisers, they have been superb ambassadors for both St Mary's Junior School and the United Kingdom as a whole. They richly deserve their success and I am confident that they have a great future ahead of them in the areas of STEM and Computer Science both at school and beyond".