Digital Blue is Chelsea Foundation’s innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programme. The initiative uses football as the catalyst to educate primary and secondary students in coding, engineering and digital skills. This year, the programme has delivered over 300 sessions to 900 unique participants in 20 schools.

The Robot Football League is a 10-week programme where students learn the core basics of coding and technological problem solving. The ‘game’ element involves a spherical robot ‘ball’, which students have to direct into a ‘goal’ by applying the right code and programming on an iPad.

Chelsea Women goalkeeper Katie Cox visited the event and had a go at trying to ‘score’ a goal with the robot ‘ball’, as well as presenting the prize to the group who had shown the best attitude throughout the event.

There have been three Robot Football League festivals at Stamford Bridge this season, with teams from the various schools participating in a tournament. Last week’s event saw teams from Southmead School, Wandsworth and Our Lady Immaculate School, Surbiton, competing against each other.

The event was ‘refereed’ by secondary students from Fulham Cross Girls School and Fulham Cross Academy who have been selected as Digital Blue Leaders due to their application, motivation and interest in the programme throughout the year. Chelsea Foundation will work with these schools to provide work experience in the tech industry, bridging the gap between academic learning and real-world applications of STEM.

Stefano D’Errico, senior schools education officer at Chelsea Foundation, said: ‘In today’s world it is vital we provide students with key digital-based skills at an early age. Using Chelsea, football and competition, we can engage and create a genuine interest in learning with the students. Every week, we have introduced a new rule of the game and as the students have progressed, make the block coding and strategic thinking elements more challenging. Thank you to all the students and staff involved in Digital Blue this year.’