A team from a Norfolk high school is set to compete in the final of a LEGO® robotics competition, with a chance to go on and battle for the global title in America.

Team Neatherd STEM, from Dereham Neatherd High School, will represent Norfolk at the IET FIRST® LEGO® League UK & Ireland Final in Bristol.

Seven teams from schools across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire took part in the IET FIRST® LEGO® Norfolk tournament, which was held on the January 18 at the Norwich Forum.

Dereham Neatherd High School won the Championship award and are now off to compete in the UK and Ireland Final, which is being held at University of West of England Exhibition and Conference Centre in Bristol, on Saturday, February 16.

Neatherd High School STEM leader, Mr Chapman, said: 'I am so pleased that his event has grown in recent years.

'It is great we are now competing in a much more exciting environment and that the general public were able to be part of the event.

'All the teams have worked incredibly hard to get the robots running, that is all down to teaching staff given up their free time in lunch breaks and after school to allow the teams to meet.'

FIRST® LEGO® League is a robotics based life skills competition for students aged nine to 16 and each year, a different theme and challenge is released globally, with this year's challenge called INTO ORBIT.

Teams of young people work together to design, build and program a robot to complete various missions, as well as identifying a real world problem to do with human exploration in space and design a solution to solve it.

As well as the pupil's robot performance, teams are judged on their robot design, the project research and presentation and the core values, which include teamwork, problem solving, inclusion and fun.

Team Neatherd, which consists of Ed Curl, Bill Hall, Ethan Windle, Mathew Allison, Ben Warmer, Louis Molenaar and Mr. Chapman will be competing against 48 teams from across the UK and Ireland.