Support Team BarrelBots on the Road to Nationals!

We are Team BarrelBots, a passionate group of students aged 12–16 from The King’s School, Ottery St Mary, united by our love for robotics and technology.

This year, for the second time, we competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge—a global STEM competition that pushes students to innovate, collaborate, and engineer solutions. After winning the Innovation Award and finishing second in the regional qualifiers, we narrowly missed first place by just one point. Now, we’ve earned a spot at the National Finals at the Copper Box Arena in London this June!

Why We Need Your Help

Attending the Nationals is a fantastic opportunity—but also a financial challenge. Travel and accommodation costs exceed £2,000, which is more than our team and families can manage alone.

So far, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to receive support from local businesses, without which our progress would not have been possible. Now, we're reaching out to the wider community to help us cross the next big milestone.

What We’re Learning

Team BarrelBots isn’t just about building robots—it’s about building futures. Through this challenge, we’re developing skills in:

These are real-world, career-ready skills that will benefit us far beyond the competition.

About FIRST Tech Challenge

The FIRST Tech Challenge, run by the charity FIRST UK, empowers 12–18-year-olds to thrive in STEM and beyond. Working like real-world engineering teams, students design, build, and code robots to complete complex tasks.

In 2023:

Learn more at www.morethanrobots.uk.

Help Us Keep Building!

We're not only fundraising for this year's Nationals—we're also preparing for the next competition season. Future costs include registration fees, materials, and travel, so your support helps both now and in the long term.

Follow our journey on social media:

Thank you for helping us reach our potential—both in competition and in life.