Director of Innovation, Robin Street, reflects on how the experience highlighted the power of combining academic expertise with real-world skills like communication, strategy, and teamwork, showing what true 21st-century education looks like.
By all accounts, I shouldn’t have been there.
A history teacher in a sea of code, sensors, and suspension systems, I travelled to Dallas last month with two NLCS teams for the VEX Robotics World Championships 2025. Both teams had qualified through sheer brilliance at national level – the only all-girl UK representatives at the event.
And what a setting it was. Held in a vast convention centre three times the size of London Excel, the championships brought together over 10,000 students, mentors, and volunteers from around the world: Singapore, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK. The atmosphere was electric. It felt part F1, part science fair, part festival.
But it wasn’t just about robots.
Over four extraordinary days, I watched Pia, Millie S, Smrithi, Millie P, Sofia, Chloe, Kohana, Nessie, Ella, Anaya, Kaavya and Harshini operate not just as engineers, but as strategists, communicators, negotiators, and teammates. They adapted tactics, presented to judges, built alliances, picked each other up after setbacks—and did so with humour, skill, and remarkable poise.
Their technical knowledge was exceptional. But what sets them apart is their ability to apply it in unpredictable, high-stakes contexts: under pressure, across cultures, and in real time. This wasn’t just about robots. This was 21st-century learning in action —where strong specialist knowledge serves as the foundation, but the ability to apply that knowledge in diverse contexts makes the difference.
What this experience confirmed for me is that innovation doesn’t belong to one subject. It lives in the connections between them — in the curiosity that bridges disciplines and inspires young people to think boldly, collaboratively, and creatively. That is what we want the Ideas Hub to be: a place where curiosity leads, and innovation follows.
I didn’t return from Dallas as a robotics expert, but I did return with a renewed sense of what education can and should be. When students are given the chance to apply their knowledge in high-pressure, real-world contexts, remarkable things happen. Confidence grows. Ideas take shape. Futures shift.
That same spirit is quietly shaping something new for junior school girls – a creative project that brings together unexpected disciplines and continues the conversation sparked in Dallas. It’s early days, but the seeds of something imaginative and bold are already taking root. And, fittingly, it all began with a history teacher watching robots in Texas.
Robin Street, Director of Innovation
