A group of Vacy Public School students and their families will make the long car trip to Melbourne during the school holidays to compete in a national robotics competition.
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Last month the students took out second place in both the soccer and dance divisions when they competed in the NSW Open in Sydney.
This earned both teams an invitation to compete in the RoboCup Junior Australian Open.
The team of Madison McCosker, 12, Fay Magri, 10 and eight-year-olds Samuel Smith and James McCosker have programmed their robot to dance alongside them to three songs.
Jesse Johnson and Harry McCosker, both 10, along with Lars Ulrick, 11, have programmed their robot to play soccer against other teams.
The community has raised more than $3000 to help send the families to the competition at the Melbourne Showground for the 11-13 October event.
A lolly guessing competition, raffles, the sale of stick insect eggs, donations from the school P and C and from the Paterson Rotary Club and other generous sponsors have made the trip a reality.
The school's principal, Karen Fonti, said the community was justifiably proud of the achievement to make it to nationals to compete against other schools including high school students.
Robotics was formally introduced to the school several years ago with the arrival of teacher Lachlan Prior.
"Robotics suits all ability levels," Mrs Fonti said.
"You don't have to be super academically smart, you can be anybody who has a go, it's a great opportunity."
