VIDEO: See why Robot Wars veteran John Findlay was wowed by Sleaford school pupils' end of term battle

Robot engineer John Findlay, who competed in the 2011 series and in the live tour, with Ripper, as well as building ‘house robot’ Matilda spent a day last month with pupils at Sleaford’s William Alvey School as part of an end of term project.

Teacher Sian Lee explained, following the end of SATS exams, the Year Six children can have a go at one of three major projects: an art project, a lavish drama production and a science project.

She has led the Robot Wars style science project to inspire future engineers, getting them involved in designing and creating their own robots from scratch.

Last Wednesday John, who does his own travelling robot show, came back, bringing an arena where the children grouped into teams could do battle with their robot creations.

The boys and girls went for an authentic Robot Wars style with presenters and commentators like the TV show.

Mrs Lee said it was a huge success with invited parents in the audience getting more excited and shouting louder than the children.

John said: “I’m blown away by the creativity, the determination. They are all fantastic.

“Genuinely the event put on was amazing and one of the best final competitions I’ve been part of. Attention to detail, intros, rehearsals, it was brilliant.

“I was super impressed with the teams, as soon as the robots broke they were straight to the garage to fix it and there was a real sense of camaraderie amongst them.

“Well done to everyone involved, you should all be proud.”

After Robot Football and battles, which included three in the ring with the smaller version of Ripper, which made spectacular mincemeat of the youngsters’ robots, team ‘D Storm’ were the champions. They have won tickets to the Robot Live Show. They hope to repeat it next year.