What happens when young people are given the opportunity to tackle real-world challenges, work as a team, and put their STEM skills to the test? As one group of students from George Stephenson High School discovered, the results can be truly life changing.
Through the IET's FIRST® LEGO® League programme, pupils don't just learn coding, robotics and engineering. They develop confidence, resilience, communication skills and leadership qualities that will support them throughout their lives. With the support of sponsors such as Sage, these opportunities are made accessible to schools that might otherwise be unable to participate.
In this inspiring story, Curriculum Leader Natalie Fenn shares how her all-girls team, Mission Possible, progressed from an idea on paper to winning a national Core Values Award, gaining invaluable skills and experiences along the way. Their journey demonstrates how investment in STEM education today is helping to build the engineers, innovators and problem-solvers of tomorrow.
FIRST® LEGO® League, delivered in the UK by the IET, gives children the chance to explore STEM beyond the school curriculum, building coding, design and engineering skills alongside softer skills such as teamwork, public speaking and leadership.
At George Stephenson High School in Newcastle upon Tyne, Curriculum Leader Computing and Digital Learning Lead, Natalie Fenn, has seen first-hand how the programme changes pupils' confidence and helps them grow into confident problem-solvers.
She originally heard about FIRST® LEGO® League via an email from North Tyneside Council's IT lead, and thought it could be something really interesting for her pupils to take part in. The more she looked into it, the more it appealed. “It wasn't just about building the robot; it was the teamwork, the communication, all those different skills coming into play,” but at first, she was concerned that she wouldn’t have the time needed to participate. “When I finally took the leap and got involved, I found myself asking “why didn’t I do this earlier?” she laughs.
Mission Possible
Now a seasoned ‘FIRST® LEGO® Leaguer’, having competed for the last four years, Fenn loves how engaged her students have become with the programme. Every year she sends out an email to all the pupils pitching the opportunity to take part, and those interested have to ‘apply’ to be a team member by telling her why they want to do it and what they think they’ll get out of it. And while the comprehensive school is mixed, with boys participating in past years, the final 2026 team was made up of 10 STEM-savvy girls from years 8 and 9.
Each year, FIRST® LEGO® League sets teams a real-world theme, challenging teams to research and design an innovation project that solves a related problem, while also building and programming a robot to compete at each event.
This year's theme was archaeology, and the team, which named itself Mission Possible, began with research before an ‘ask the expert’ session, organised by the North Tyneside Learning Trust. The pupils devised their own questions and learned that archaeologists often face physical strain from kneeling, lifting and working in awkward positions for long periods. "The girls decided that they wanted to create something that could reduce that strain while still allowing them to do their job," says Fenn. Out of this came their ‘Arch X suit’: an idea that evolved from a simple high-vis vest into a full exoskeleton with smart features including haptics, refined through several iterations.
One team member’s family connection led to a working archaeologist reviewing Mission Possible’s work and running an after-school webinar. "She was brilliant,” says Fenn. “She went through the suit with them and told them what was good and what could be improved, providing real industry feedback from an expert.”
The archaeologist suggested practical changes the girls hadn't considered, from making it a two-piece suit and ensuring the gloves worked with touch screens, to switching the colour of the suit from yellow to orange, since yellow attracts bugs.
Missions on the mat
Alongside the innovation project, the team built and programmed a robot to complete missions on a mat. "These missions aren’t easy, and it takes a lot of skill and a lot of resilience to complete them," says Fenn. “They’d work on both projects every lunchtime and Wednesdays after school – the amount of free time that they put into it was unbelievable. The resources they put into building flash cards, posters and displays… they were truly 100% committed."
But commitment can't cover all the costs involved, and so for many schools, its sponsorship that makes taking part possible at all.
“School budgets are just ridiculously tight at the moment," says Fenn, who notes that without outside sponsorship, entry fees, kit and travel costs would be well out of reach.
For George Stephenson High School, that support has come from Sage, the North East-headquartered software company, which has backed the team for the past four years. Sage covers entry fees along with the practice mat and kit needed for training. When the team qualified for the FIRST® LEGO® League nationals in Harrogate, Sage funded a coach to get them (and another local school) there, working with North Tyneside Learning Trust. "It was brilliant that they did that for us," says Fenn. "We wouldn't have been able to go otherwise." That support wasn’t only about funding, either. Fenn credits Stacey Acres, Programme Delivery Manager – FIRST® LEGO® League, for organising much of it behind the scenes: “She was the one who organised everything for me, and got the funding through Sage,” she says.
Sage staff volunteer at competitions, running the games and interacting directly with pupils, many of whom already know Sage as a major local employer. Having taken part for four years, Fenn has built her own relationship with the volunteers too. “I see the same ones year after year, so we’ve built up a bit of a relationship there.”
Firsts
The team's achievements have been remarkable. Mission Possible became the second team in the North East ever to reach FIRST® LEGO® League regionals, and the first all-girls team to do so.
The run-up to competitions saw the classroom buzzing daily. "The atmosphere was just crazy," says Fenn. “The girls came in every lunchtime, running through missions and their presentation a hundred times, refining their route around the board and tweaking the robot based on lessons learned at previous events.” Staying in character as Mission Possible, they even coordinated an outfit theme, complete with shirts, bow ties and hats.
At the national competition, the team won the Core Values Award, which recognises teamwork, resilience and what FIRST® LEGO® League calls ‘gracious professionalism’. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think they'd come back with a prize," says Fenn. "But their attitude and the way they presented themselves at competition was what won them that award. They never once gave up, and they were always positive."
The moment of victory was overwhelming. With parents in the audience and a stadium atmosphere rivalling a football match, Fenn watched the girls' win announced on the big screen with tears in her eyes. "I had to do a double take. The girls just leapt out of their seats." Looking back, Fenn is certain they earned it. "I don't think a team deserves it more. They've balanced schoolwork, home learning, other commitments like football and dance, and never once failed to turn up."
More than a mission accomplished
That dedication has paid off in more than trophies. For Fenn, it's the mixture of disciplines pupils gain along the way that matters most, coding, robotics and problem-solving, all coming together as they watch their robot navigate the mat. “It's just that combination of building, problem-solving, engineering – it encompasses so many different aspects,” she says.
That variety extends to the team itself, with pupils naturally gravitating towards different strengths, while Fenn made sure everyone had a turn at each role. "At any point, they could be presenting, engineering, designing, coding or project managing," she says. And when a mission finally clicks, the payoff is collective. "When it does work, we're all cheering and screaming. It's a brilliant sense of community. It really does bring them all together."
That teamwork has come hand in hand with a marked change in confidence. Fenn has seen dramatic growth in communication, honed through repeated practice presenting to judges. "Their presentation skills and confidence are just phenomenal. They're brilliant public speakers now," she says. For pupils as young as year 8, that poise is remarkable. "The thought of public speaking at that age would have terrified me. But these girls have done it in year 8, so they'll take it in their stride when they move into further education and the workplace. I do believe this experience hast given them a step up. Definitely."
That hands-on exposure is also already shaping how some pupils see their futures. "We've got a couple of girls taking up computer science from that experience alone," Fenn says; proof the programme is building more than robots; it's building the next generation of female STEM talent.
Inspiring the engineers of tomorrow
Fenn's advice to any school considering FIRST® LEGO® League is simple: "Just go for it, and watch your students develop in front of you. The skills they get from it are invaluable, and I think for any child to experience it is just amazing." But she's candid about the demands it places on staff. "It does take commitment, there's no doubt about it, but it’s one of the most rewarding educational experiences I’ve been involved in.”
The recognition has extended well beyond the competition itself. Fenn has received emails from parents thanking her for the experience their children had, and even praise from a teacher at another school, who wrote to the headteacher after regionals to say what brilliant ambassadors the girls had been. When the team brought their medals home, the headteacher and deputy head were waiting for them. "We've got a photo in the foyer with the head and deputies – he was delighted," laughs Fenn, “and I’ve now got a waiting list of students who want to take part!” For Fenn, that recognition, alongside the relationships she’s built with Sage’s volunteers and FIRST® LEGO® League’s organisers over four years, is proof the commitment has paid off for her as a coach, not just for her pupils.
None of it would be possible, though, without sponsors like Sage stepping in to cover the costs, and Mission Possible’s story is clear proof that backing a programme like this pays dividends far beyond the competition itself.