Kinsale Community School Makes History with Four Teams Qualifying for VEX Robotics World Championships

Kinsale Community School is celebrating exceptional success at the VEX Robotics Ireland National Championships, held on Tuesday 24th at Munster Technological University.

Competing against the country’s leading robotics programmes, four KCS teams delivered one of the strongest performances in the competition’s history, securing an outstanding haul of awards:

  • Excellence Award

  • Tournament Champions

  • Design Award

  • Tournament Finalist (x2)

The Excellence Award — the event’s highest honour — recognises excellence in engineering design, documentation, teamwork, strategy and match performance. Winning this alongside the Tournament Championship highlights the strength and consistency of the KCS robotics programme.

As a result, KCS will send four teams to the VEX Robotics World Championships in St. Louis, USA (April 21–24) — the largest number ever sent by a single Irish school. Of the seven Irish teams qualifying for the World Championships, four are from Kinsale Community School, underlining the school’s leadership in Irish robotics.

Delivered nationally by VEX Robotics Ireland and organised globally by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF), with long-term partner Dell Technologies, the championships mark another milestone in nearly a decade of sustained robotics development at KCS. What began as a small Transition Year initiative has evolved into one of Ireland’s most successful school-based STEM programmes under the leadership of Eddie Farren and TY Coordinator Niamh Hay.

This year also marks a national first in curriculum innovation. Since September 2025, KCS has formally embedded Ireland’s first Junior Cycle Short Course in Robotics into its timetable. The 100-hour course, available to 2nd- and 3rd-year students and aligned with NCCA Junior Cycle key skills, currently enrols more than 50 students. Working in teams of three, students design, build and programme robots while documenting their learning through a Class-Based Assessment engineering notebook.

Second-year student Riva O’Reilly said:
“Working on VEX Robotics has been a fantastic experience — building and programming our robot, working as a team and growing in confidence as we competed through to national level. It’s been a blast.”

Deputy Principal Kathleen O’Brien added:
“Robotics at KCS is about building confidence, creativity and resilience. Students learn to think critically, collaborate effectively and apply knowledge in real contexts. These results reflect years of vision, commitment and belief in what our students can achieve.”

With record-breaking national success and four teams now preparing for the World Championships in St. Louis, Kinsale Community School continues to set the benchmark for applied STEM education in Ireland.

Gemma Cooper