## **Student Robotics**
## **Trustees’ Annual Report 2024**
_From 1st August 2023 to 30th June 2024_
## **Reference and Administrative Details**
## **Charity Name:**
Student Robotics
## **Charity Registration Number:**
1163168
## **Principal Address:**
Student Robotics Lytchett House 13 Freeland Park Wareham Road Lytchett Matravers Poole
## **Trustees:**
● Diane Dowling
● David Massey
● Thomas Scarsbrook
## **Executive Summary**
Student Robotics continues to inspire and empower young people through hands-on STEM education. During the 2023-24 season, we engaged students across the UK and Europe with our hybrid competition, culminating in the successful SR2024 event. Our programme remains free to participants, broadening access to real-world engineering experiences. With a strong community of volunteers, and a focus on continuous improvement, Student Robotics is well-positioned to expand its impact and foster the next generation of engineers and innovators.
## **Objectives and Activities**
Student Robotics exists to advance education and training for the public good, particularly in the fields of engineering, mathematics, robotics, computing, software development, and related disciplines, as set out in its constitution.
Our primary activity is the organisation and delivery of an annual robotics competition for 16 to 19-year-olds. This event challenges students to design, build, and program autonomous robots. Once the game is announced, teams have six months to develop their robots, with support provided through customised kits and mentoring. Participation is completely free of charge, ensuring accessibility - particularly for students who may lack previous exposure to engineering and robotics.
The charity continues to fulfil its aim of inspiring young people towards STEM careers. Many of our volunteers are former participants, and the competition continues to attract new schools and teams. Our vision remains _"to foster a world where engineering and artificial intelligence is accessible to young people,"_ and our mission is _"to bring the excitement of engineering and the challenge of coding to young people through robotics."_
## **Achievements and Performance**
The 2023–24 season marked another exciting year, culminating in **SR2024** . This year’s game, **Final Frontier** , tasked teams with retrieving asteroids while managing intergalactic spaceships - all while avoiding the disruptive "Egg".
We continued with a hybrid model: a **virtual league** earlier in the year allowed teams to refine their programming skills remotely, culminating in a broadcast competition in March. Wisbech Grammar School dominated this stage, though competition remained fierce.
At the physical competition weekend:
- **69 league matches** showcased incredible robot designs and strategies.
- Robots demonstrated agility, creativity, and autonomous decision-making.
- The final featured four top teams, with Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf crowned SR2024 champions, followed by Wisbech Grammar School (second place) and The Ladies’ College Guernsey (third place).
## **Additional Awards:**
## ● **Excellence in Engineering:** Abingdon School
- **Rookie Award:** The Henry Box School
- **Robot and Team Image Award:** Gymnasium Markt Indersdorf
- **Online Presence Award:** Westminster City School
- **Challenges Award:** Royal Grammar School Guildford
Throughout the season, we continued to improve operations, deliver a high-quality livestream at low cost, and enhance team engagement via technical innovation and creative marketing efforts.
We are proud of the achievements of all teams, volunteers, and sponsors who made SR2024 possible, and are excited to build on this momentum.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
Student Robotics is a **Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)** , registered on 18th August 2015. Our governance is defined by our constitution, which sets out our objectives, powers, and structure.
**The Board of Trustees** meets regularly to discuss strategy and oversee governance. Our trustees bring professional expertise from engineering and computer science fields, alongside direct experience managing student teams providing valuable insight into the participant perspective.
Trustees are recruited from existing volunteers and, in future, from past competition participants as they progress into their professional careers. Trustees are appointed either by the charity’s members or by resolution of the trustees.
We maintain a culture of openness and transparency, supported by a living Operations Manual, which documents procedures, role responsibilities, and delegated powers, and is regularly updated.
**Committees oversee day-to-day operations** :
- **Competition Committee:** Delivers the annual robotics competition.
- **Kit Team Committee:** Develops and maintains the robotics kit.
- **Infrastructure Team Committee:** Manages the charity’s technical infrastructure.
- **Fundraising Team:** Led by trustees, focuses on securing sponsorship.
- **Marketing Team Committee:** Manages social media, the website, and team recruitment.
The charity’s structure is designed for future growth, with the flexibility to expand into
additional activities beyond the annual competition.
## **Financial Review**
We changed our accounting year to end one month earlier, on **30 June** , to align more closely with our competition cycle. This report covers the period from **1st August 2023 to 30th June 2024** .
Our financial position remains satisfactory:
- **Year-end bank balance:** £15,104
Maintaining reserves enables us to plan and launch future competitions without relying on last-minute fundraising. We always budget based on available funds, and our current reserves are sufficient to support a competition in 2025.
A financial statement has been filed alongside this report. Full accounts are available for inspection at any time.
## **Approval**
Approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf:
**Diane Dowling**
Trustee (Treasurer)
**Student Robotics**
**CC16a**
**1163168**
## **Receipts and payments accounts**
**For the period** 01/08/2023 30/06/2024 **To from**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Donations|**9,428**||**-**||**-**||**9,428**||**20,938**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_|**9,428**||**-**||**-**||**9,428**||**20,938**|
|||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**||||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
||**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||||||**20,938**|
|||||||||||
|
Accountingand legal|**35**||**-**||**-**||**35**||**83**|
|Bank Fees|**57**||**-**||**-**||**57**||**60**|
|Costs of competition|**6,641**||**-**||**-**||**6,641**||**7,824**|
|Container rental|**1,258**||**-**||**-**||**1,258**||**1,373**|
|Digital infrastructure|**89**||**-**||**-**||**89**||**78**|
|Insurance|**473**||**-**||**-**||**473**||**457**|
|Kit development|**474**||**-**||**-**||**474**||**3,103**|
|Mail services|**150**||**-**||**-**||**150**||**275**|
|Marketing|**1,936**||**-**||**-**||**1,936**||**692**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**11,113**||**-**||**-**||**11,113**||**13,945**|
|||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||
||||||||||**13,945**|
|||||||||||
||**- 1,685**||||||||**6,993**|
||**-**||||||||**-**|
||**16,789**||||||||**9,796**|
||**15,104**||||||||**16,789**|
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**|1
HSBC
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**15,104**
**-**
**-**
**15,104**
OK|29/04/2025
**Restricted funds**
**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
OK
OK|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|||||**-**|
|Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**|Signature
Diane Dowling
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which asset**
**belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Diane Dowling|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
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||||**-**|
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||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
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||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
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||||Date of approval|
||Diane Dowling|Diane Dowling|27/04/2025|
|||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
29/04/2025
2