Mr Potter (Director of Digital Strategy)

In Robotics Club this term, we have been using the Sphero Bolt robot. This is a spherical ball with an LED screen which can be programmed in a variety of ways. The students have been drawing programs with their finger on the iPad which the robot will follow as well as using block-based coding to move the robot around, make it talk and change the LED screen to different colours or even display pictures.

We have played Sphero golf where students need to think about elements such as speed, distance and direction in order to move their robot around a golf course to get to the hole using the least number of programs possible (we have had a couple of holes in one!). We have also played Sphero football and in our next session we will be looking to build chariots for chariot racing, which leads to the engineering question of how do you attach a structure to a moving sphere?

The Sphero robots allow our students to think both creatively, collaboratively and logically which are essential skills for all areas of their lives.

Current and prospectus families will be able to test their driving skills on Sphero at the Open Morning on Saturday.