FIRST® LEGO® League
Engineering Minds is proud to coach children taking part in FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge, an international STEM programme combining robotics, coding, engineering, research and teamwork.
Our teams meet weekly in Eltham throughout the academic year, working together to design, build and program their LEGO® SPIKE Prime robots while developing an Innovation Project based on a real-world challenge.
The 2026–27 Season: BIOGLOW™
This year, two Engineering Minds teams are taking on the BIOGLOW™ challenge – an exciting season exploring biodiversity, habitats and the connections between nature, technology and innovation.
Over the coming months, our young engineers will develop and refine their robots, write and test autonomous code, tackle the Robot Game missions and research their own innovative solutions to challenges affecting our natural world.
Both teams are preparing to represent Engineering Minds at the FIRST LEGO League London North Tournament in March 2027.
More than a robotics competition
FIRST LEGO League challenges children to bring together everything they have learned in robotics, coding and engineering – but success is about much more than building a great robot.
Children learn to research, experiment, solve problems, communicate their ideas and work as a team. They experience the complete engineering process: designing, testing, failing, adapting and trying again.
Our FIRST LEGO League Journey
Our Engineering Minds teams have achieved fantastic results in previous seasons, including:
- Champions Award at the FIRST LEGO League Regional Tournament at the University of Greenwich for two consecutive years
- Qualification for the UK National Finals
- Finalist at the UK National Championship in Harrogate
We are incredibly proud of what our young engineers have achieved and even more excited to see where this year's teams take us.
FIRST LEGO League at Engineering Minds
Engineering Minds is proud to be part of the FIRST LEGO League community, giving children the opportunity to take their STEM learning beyond the classroom and experience the excitement of an international robotics competition.
Over the years, we have worked alongside the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the University of Greenwich to deliver FIRST LEGO League tournaments, bringing together hundreds of young people for a day of robotics, innovation, teamwork and problem-solving.
Our own FIRST LEGO League teams train throughout the year, developing and programming autonomous LEGO robots, tackling the season's real-world STEM challenge and creating innovative solutions through their Innovation Projects.
From our clubs to the UK National Finals
We were incredibly proud to have seen children from our Eltham FIRST LEGO League Club progress from their weekly sessions to the UK National Finals twice, competing alongside teams from across the country.
Their achievements reflect months of designing, coding, testing, research and teamwork – and, most importantly, the confidence, resilience and enthusiasm for STEM that FIRST LEGO League helps children develop.
For us, that journey is what FIRST LEGO League is all about: giving young people the opportunity to think like engineers, work as a team and discover just how much they are capable of achieving.
A project from a previous FIRST LEGO League season
As part of a previous Masterpiece Season, children from our Eltham Club explored how virtual reality could make experiences such as skiing, climbing and other physically challenging activities more accessible to children with physical disabilities.
To help shape their idea, the team developed a questionnaire and sought feedback from people who could potentially benefit from their project. Their research helped them understand the importance of listening to users, identifying real needs and using those insights to develop and improve an engineering solution.
It was a great example of what FIRST LEGO League is about: encouraging children to look at
real-world problems, ask meaningful questions and use STEM to imagine solutions that could make a difference.
"Explore, innovate, protect! The BIOGLOW™ season is here, challenging young minds to discover the incredible diversity of our planet and explore how STEM and innovation can help our ecosystems thrive.
Click on the image to watch a video of the missions.
FIRST LEGO League 2026–27
