James thanks for your reply. Thats a good idea to offer writing to the schools. Of course I wouldnt expect anyone on our forum to say that this sport of ours is not educational and I agree whole heartedly with that and some schools may indeed encourage it.

But the fact of the matter is the school that my boys attend doesnt. Even to the point they would not authorise a formal holiday request on the last day of school last summer (and they finish at 1:00pm !) to attend RIAT. We even had the school ring up when the boys didnt show - crazy I know but thats the truth of it. Incredibly the school also awarded Will the Engineering prize for the last 2 years for running the robot club so its not that the school doesnt recognise the value.

And of course its the start of a new year, new school for some so I am sure there could be many in the same boat and inevtiably many of our young roboteers may be dissapointed. Of course RoboChallenge or Silverline dont want to be seen to be encouraging time off school without permission and the letter may help in that respect.

For Matt, we'll just have to see what the school says in September. Will can please his self as he wont start Uni till October !
(That might please some becasue Matt and the other kids of his age have grown up with Wii, PS3, DS's etc and have great dexterity and have proven time and time again they can drive !)

Rgds, Ian