Haberdashers’ Boys’ School team makes history at VEX Robotics World Championship

Published 12th November 2025

Students from Haberdashers’ Boys’ School in Elstree have made history by becoming the first UK team at their programme level to win the Excellence Award at the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas.

Their team, Cyber Squad, achieved the top accolade for outstanding performance across engineering design, coding, innovation and teamwork. It’s only the second time in the competition’s 18-year history that a UK team has received this award, a landmark moment for design, technology and STEM education in the UK.

Behind the win

The Design & Technology Association visited Haberdashers’ Boys’ School to meet the Cyber Squad team and hear more about their journey. The students described how they developed their robot from early design concepts through to testing and final refinements, highlighting how teamwork, creativity and perseverance shaped their success.

Teachers Mr Ryan and Ms Fagan, who have led the VEX programme at the school, played a key role in guiding and motivating the students over their three years of competition. Their encouragement helped the team to continually improve, learn from challenges and push their technical and problem-solving abilities further each season.

A tour of the school’s design and technology department revealed inspiring, hands-on spaces that encourage innovation and practical learning. The students explained how the project not only developed their engineering and coding skills but also boosted their confidence and communication, skills they found invaluable during the intense competition and ones they’ll carry forward into future studies and careers.

Inspiring others

Now, the Cyber Squad team are giving back by mentoring younger pupils at the school, helping them get started with VEX and inspiring the next generation of robotics enthusiasts. Their success highlights just how powerful design and technology education can be in nurturing curiosity, creativity and resilience in young people.

At a time when the UK faces a growing shortage of STEM and engineering skills, their achievement is a reminder of why investment in design and technology is so vital for the future workforce.

Teachers can download the full article below, featured in Practice magazine, to hear directly from each of the team members and watch exclusive videos about their award-winning journey.