John Wollaston Robotics Team
Finish in World Top-Five at the
FIRST® LEGO® League World Championships 2025
A team of seven talented students from John Wollaston Anglican Community School (JWACS) has achieved international recognition by placing in the top-five teams for Robot Design at the 2025 FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) World Championships, in Houston, Texas, over the April school holidays.
The FIRST LEGO League is a global STEM competition that challenges students to build and program autonomous robots to complete complex missions, while also developing innovative solutions to real-world problems.
Competing against the world’s best young robotic innovators, the John Wollaston team impressed judges and spectators with their ingenuity, teamwork, and technical excellence. The top-five finish in Robot Design highlights the team’s exceptional engineering skills and creative problem-solving, standing out on the world stage against some 160 teams competing from 70 countries worldwide!
‘This result is a testament to the students’ dedication, perseverance, and passion for robotics. Our students have worked incredibly hard and to be recognised on the world stage is an extraordinary achievement.’ said Chrisna LeVaillant, team coach and Science teacher.
Year 10 JWACS student and team member, Alexis, said she is so grateful to the School and teachers for providing this opportunity: ‘My interest in robotics was sparked by FLL. JWACS supported this through ensuring we had time and resources for FLL and the robotics involved. The team is so special because we have become like a mini-family. We bonded a lot over the course of the Submerged FLL season and we all have grown so much. My favourite memory from the Houston trip was certainly the day that we won our award - it was so much fun celebrating together.’
Fellow Year 10 team member, Oviya, said the highlight of the Houston trip was meeting other teams during the competition. ‘It’s really refreshing to see so many people with the same passion as ours, showcasing and sharing their findings and showing importance to core values. We are more than just a robotics team. We are a team of close friends who have experienced the highs and lows of working together, which ultimately strengthened us in the end. I know these friendships will last a long time from now.’
John Wollaston is well known for it’s strength in Science and STEM offerings. Principal, Tim Russell, says: ‘We have a wonderful Science program at John Wollaston, which consistently provides our students with rich opportunities to engage and learn within our excellent facilities. Our programs are greatly enhanced by industry-leading teaching staff and strongly supported by a wide variety of curricular and co-curricular options. Our whole community enjoyed following the journey of our JWACS FLL Team. We are beyond proud of these seven remarkable students, and their dedicated teachers, for an extraordinary top-five result at the FIRST Lego World Championships!’
