Children at a Calne school have come up with an innovative way to solve a problem faced by many towns that are overrun by squawking gulls.

A group of Year 6 pupils from St Margaret’s Preparatory School, Calne, competed in Birmingham in the regional heats of the First LEGOLeague Challenge which this year had the theme of Animal Allies. The children had to invent a solution to solve a problem between animals and humans and they came up with Ultrasonic Bird Bolt or UBB for short. The device scares off birds that might be causing a nuisance to people living nearby by emitting a sound that cannot be heard by humans but is disliked by the gulls.

Head of Computing Mike Callahan said: “The intention is for it to be put in outside places where humans want to eat without being hassled by our feathered friends. The children wrote to various coastal town councils for their opinion and their replies were very positive.”

In the second part of their challenge the group of ten and eleven year olds were proud to come third overall when they competed with 14 senior schools to solve a series of demanding robotic missions, all with Animal Allies as a theme. Their robot design, which incorporated a pulley system that allowed it to be suspended up a wall, took first place.