HI-TECH pupils have engineered their way into the finals of a regional competition earlier this month after building their own robot.

Matthew Crow, Toby Hansom, both 13, and fellow teammates Ethan Stephenson, James Sinclair, Joseph Beadle and Curtis Raine, all 14, from Staindrop School near Barnard Castle, spent hours designing and building Clawless.

They then took it to the regional finals - to compete against 16 other schools - at the Vex Robotics competition at Nissan, Sunderland.

The team, all B Tec Engineering students, took part in the competition as part of the academy’s STEM agenda which aims to encourage pupils in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Head of technology, Stuart Pybus, explained how the boys had to team up with another school to complete specific tasks in an arena and worked hard to solve a series of problems when features on their robot stopped working for no apparent reason.

In the end they lost out by just two points but received a special award from the judges for their ability to problem solve under pressure.

Team captain Curtis Raine, said: “I think we did quite well in comparison to the others especially because everything went wrong on the day but we worked as a team to solve it.”

Mr Pybus said he is really proud of the team and is now appealing for businesses to sponsor the school so they can take part in the event next year.

If you would like to sponsor the team contact Mr Pybus at the school by calling 01833-660285.