How these Bega Valley school kids engineered a shock state robotics win

With no extensive background in robotics, students from St Patrick's Primary School entered the largest ACT event in history, competing against 437 children at the 2026 RoboCup Junior Australia.

Year 4 student Wyatt, an avid Lego builder who only started learning coding programs this year, joined the club as "something fun to do".

Building on the success of a 50-student program in Canberra, teacher Jess Hallahan teamed up with principal Jo Scott-Pegum to establish a new, problem-solving club at the school.

"They didn't really have anything like that down here and didn't really have access to good quality robotics kits either, so Jo invested in some SPIKE Prime sets for the kids to start using," Ms Hallahan said.

To conquer ramps, they must customise their builds, adjusting wheel sizes and types for manoeuvrability, balancing weight distribution, and carefully calibrating light-sensor heights so the robots can "see".

According to RoboCup Junior Australia, the rescue field uses modular square tiles to create endless course variations and allow for future expansions. Additionally, the course now features a third dimension, incorporating bridges, speed bumps, and obstacles.

For 12-year-old Evie, coding her robot "Gbob" became an unexpected passion. While she disliked the "fiddly stuff" of building, teacher guidance changed her perspective on programming.

"Ms Hallahan showed me how to do it and I found it easy once I got the hang of it," Evie said.

At the competition, Wyatt and his teammate Charlie faced early setbacks when their robot's "eyes" were placed in the wrong spot, followed by a minor hiccup at a crossroads. However, the machine succeeded in its final two attempts.

Tasked with building a rescue rover, Wyatt and his teammate Charlie had to program their machine to climb ramps, navigate over debris, weave around obstacles, and rescue a "victim" by pushing them out of the chemical spill to safety.

"They handed out third place to someone else, I was like 'We're not going to get it'," Wyatt said.

"Second place wasn't us and I was like 'We're definitely not going to get it', and first place went to our group 'Bones', and me and Charlie were shocked."

Ms Hallahan praised Wyatt's "exceptional engineering design" after he defeated 40 other competitors, noting that his victory was "pretty impressive for a first-time competitor".

Reflecting on his approach, Wyatt proved that keeping calm was key to the win.

"In my mind, to overcome the nerves, I was like 'I'm only doing it for the fun, not to win, so just give it a go, and if you fail, just fix what failed'," the 10-year-old said.