#HighPeakYouthRobotics
High Peak Youth Robotics 2025/2026
We set-up this new youth group in September 2024 to enable a group of young people to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge, a national robotics competition. FIRST aims to make science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) more fun and inclusive. You can find out more about the Challenge on the FIRST website here.
This was the second year of us running the group. The main objective of the project was to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge UK regional competition event in Sheffield in March 2026.
This year, we ran two Challenge teams within the group, made up of younger/less experienced and older/more experienced members. There were places for 15 young people, with 19 taking part during the year, aged 12 to 17.
We hosted weekly, term-time workshops between September 2025 and April 2026 at St Anne’s Community Centre in Buxton to work towards this. Our Funny Wonders delivery team was led by Dave Lydford of Not Just Bricks (and formally Brick Corner). Dave also runs the FIRST LEGO League for younger participants. Some local engineers also came along to offer advice and support to the group.
The regional competition went extremely well – read our review of the day here – and the senior team ‘Peak Bots’ qualified for the national finals… again! This too was a great success and they finished in the top 20 teams! Read about our review of nationals here.
See photos of the year below.
Thanks
The second year was supported by contributions from BlueSpark Foundation, Buxton4Youth, Duke of Devonshire Charitable Trust, Derbyshire County Council Community Leadership Fund, High Peak Borough Council Councillor Initiative Fund, Neater Solutions Ltd, Buxton Lime, Tarmac Tunstead, Altrad Belle, Buxton Rotary Club, SCAN Computers, Derbyshire Freemasons plus private donations via GoFundMe and the group’s fundraising activities, and a bursary from FIRST UK. The teams also received robot part donations from local engineering company, Smart Engineering UK, and t-shirts supplied by Altrad Belle.
Participants
There are places for 15 young people in the group, with the Challenge open to those aged 12-18.
Whilst open to all young people in the High Peak aged 12-18 years old, we particularly look to welcome those with neurodiversity, those who are home-educated or not in education, those feeling isolated, or those who experience barriers to accessing (or enjoying) STEM subjects in their traditional form whilst at school.
We also aim to have 50:50 split of boys and girls. As such, some places may be held to help us achieve this.
Workshops
Thanks to our grant funding, workshops were free to attend and took place on term-time Tuesday evenings, 6pm to 8pm in the Main Room at St Anne’s Community Centre off Hardwick Square West (SK17 6PX).
The venue is wheelchair accessible and has a small carpark.
Safeguarding
Funny Wonders has a comprehensive Safeguarding Policy and working procedures. All members of the delivery team undergo enhanced DBS checks and safeguarding awareness training. All activities and venues are risk-assessed with mental health and wellbeing, physical safety, data privacy and environmental impact all considered.
Sign Up
If you would like to apply for a place for a young person, please complete the form below and we will be in touch.
Once our places are full, we operate a waitlist, should any spaces open up. To join the waitlist, please email highpeakyouthrobotics@funnywonders.org.uk.
Sign Up
We are currently fundraising for the 2026/2027 academic year. If you would like to apply for a place for a young person, please complete the form below to join the waiting list.
The questions are designed to provide us with logistical information, to ensure we are reaching our target group (as per the grant funding we have obtained to deliver the project) and to ensure we have a diverse group of young people.
The information you provide will be used and held in accordance with our Data Protection & Confidentiality Policy and will not be shared. By completing the form, your consent for us to collect your data is implied. You can find our full Privacy Statement on our Policy & Procedure page here.
Autumn Term Workshops
Workshops started on 16 September 2025. Activities have included: teamwork games, learning about the new challenge, unboxing the robotics kit and doing a stock-take of the kit, sorting the kit into new storage containers and designing team logos. The senior team have been exploring design ideas and the junior team have been building their base, using the design provided by FIRST as a starting point.
Scrimmage
We attended the FIRST regional scrimmage in Sheffield on 21 November 2025. This is a friendly event to meet other teams, check on our progress and have the opportunity to practice in the competition field arena.
Winter Term Workshops
Progress made with the robot building, coding and presentation portfolios and some driving practice during the first half-term. In the lead up to regionals, we were visited by local engineers, who offered some advice, and the teams finalised their logos, portfolios and practised playing matches, talking tactics and scoring points. Protective panels were also added to the robots, made-to-measure and donated by Smart Engineering UK, based at Tongue Lane Industrial Estate in Fairfield.
Regionals
We attended the FIRST regional competition in Sheffield on 25 March 2026. Both the senior and junior teams (Peak Bots and Peak Gears) played in the qualification matches, even being drawn against each other in one match! The senior team went on to the play-offs and made it through to the final match and were part of the winning alliance! The senior team also won the judges’ Connect Award for building relationships with other teams. Read our review of the day here.
Buxton Rotary Fair
To promote the group, raise some funds and practise for nationals, members of the team and group had a stall at the Buxton Rotary Summer Fair & Charity Bazaar at the Pavilion Gardens on Saturday 31 May 2025. We demonstrated the robot and ran some guess competitions: the name of the robot, the number of bolts on the robot, the weight of the robot; and the number of nuts and bolts in a jar. Members of the group also made some “Billerobot” keyrings, as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of The Billerettes at the fair. We sold out on the day but are taking orders to make more: if you’d like one, please get in touch!
Thanks to Outwood Academy Newbold for the loan of their challenge arena. It fit in our space with only centimetres to spare!
Nationals
We ran a further workshop on 14 April so Peak Bots could prepare for nationals and the junior team, Peak Gears, could review their experience at regionals. The FIRST UK National Championships took place at the Copper Box Arena in London on 21-22 April 2026. Read about how they got on here.