Good morning,
Firstly, I would like to wish all in the Landau Community a Happy New Year!
I am delighted to inform you of the success of our Year 9 and 10 robotics team at the recent VEX Robotics Regional Competition in Nottingham. Team Beast won three of the four available awards at this tournament: the Teamwork Champion Award, the Robot Skills Champion Award, and the Design Award. They will now challenge at the National Finals in Telford.
As a result of their exceptional performance at the tournament, Team Beast have been invited to compete at an incredibly prestigious international competition in the United States. The team from Landau Forte College is the only team from the UK to be invited to take part in the CREATE U.S. Open Tournament in Iowa. At this 3-day-long tournament in March of this year, Team Beast will take on teams from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, and the United States. This is obviously a fantastic opportunity for these young people, and I am delighted for them. At Landau Forte College we know how important it is to develop every facet of our students, in the classroom and outside of it, and opportunities like this are central to this mission. This is the core belief behind the Landau Forte Enrichment Fund, to offer new opportunities to our young people so they can broaden their horizons and take on new challenges.
However, in order to go on this trip, Team Beast will need to raise around £12,500 over the next two months. They will be organising a series of cake sales and samosa sales to help raise funds, as well as seeking out corporate donations from local businesses. We are also very grateful to the parents of the students involved who are contributing towards the costs of the trip. In addition to this Martin Landau, one of the founders of Landau Forte Charitable Trust, has provided a significant donation, as has Ian Hepworth, previously Chief Technical Officer at Ideagen. Robert Morgan, Managing Director at Pektron, secured a donation from the company as part of his commitment to supporting science and technology learning among young people and Ian Mills, Director of Wolf Sportswear, has also made a donation.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these incredibly talented and determined young people and we are keen to do everything in our power to ensure they are able to go.
I appreciate that budgets are tight for everyone, particularly at this time of year, but if you are able to spare any funds at all to help with this goal it would be hugely appreciated by all of us at Landau Forte College. We are collecting money through the Landau Forte Enrichment Fund, which aims to provide our students with life-changing opportunities outside of the classroom.
If you are able to donate anything at all to the fund to help the team, you can do so here: The Landau Forte Enrichment Fund – Landau Forte College Derby We are incredibly grateful for any donation which may make this once-in-a-lifetime trip possible for our young people.
As always, thank you for your ongoing support and I know you will join me in wishing Team Beast good luck in their forthcoming national and international competitions