A team of 20 students from Years 7 and 8 competed in the Cobis Secondary Games in Rome. They also managed some sightseeing and cultural activities. Read Mr Lemon's report from the trip.

After breakfast in the hotel we travelled to an offsite swimming venue for the activities on day 1. We had 11 swimmers qualify for the final of their event, which was excellent against some very experienced swimmers. Of these, we picked up five medals. Alex K and Emese V both picked up silver in each of the 50-metre butterfly and 200-metre medley events, while Sufian D earned a medal in 50-metre backstroke. All swimmers gave excellent effort and fantastic support to their teammates throughout the day. The results of day 1 left us fifth in the overall table.

After our events, we travelled into Rome to sightsee, spending time at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, although the students were most excited for the gelateria. We had dinner in a local Italian restaurant before heading to bed, ahead of what would be a long day in the sun for the athletics on day 2.

There were some wonderful highlights and individual success stories on day 2. Due to the four-lane track at the venue, there were only four competitors in track finals for the 100-metre, 200-metre and 400-metre races. First up were our 800-metre heats in which Kaloyan and Sufian ran excellently, with Sufian qualifying for the final with the third best time. He would later come fourth overall, but Kaloyan ran amazingly and was only a few seconds from the final, which is brilliant in a race against mostly Year 8s.

Our 100-metre sprinters ran very well but found it difficult against experienced sprinters from Greece and Nigeria who dominated the event. Ido gave us another highlight with a fast-finishing heat in the 200-metres, which he won but was one second from qualifying for the final despite an amazing run. Credit must go to our 400-metre team of Sophie, Sophia, Raphael and Ido for their efforts in one of the most difficult disciplines. The hardest race of the day, however, was the 1500-metres in tough heat. Raphael, Emese, Arys and Michelle ran with wonderful determination, with Emese managing a sixth-place finish.

In our throwing events there was medal success for Emese with a silver in the javelin, and Alex K with a bronze in the discus, where he missed out on silver by one centimetre.

We fared well in the high jump, as Alex K picked up another silver medal and Jayani missed out on a bronze medal on count back, which is incredible for someone who took up jumping so recently.

Martina performed well in the triple jump, grabbing a bronze medal after clearing eight metres.

After the events the group went for dinner at a different local restaurant and had mountains of pasta to replace the carbs lost in the Roman heat.

Football on day 3 meant that both boys' and girls' teams played a guaranteed 150 minutes across the day.

The boys' team started with a draw against a Campion from Athens, before winning convincingly against BSB of Bucharest, with Luis scoring four and Zayd getting his first goal for the school. The boys then lost to eventual champions The Regent School of Nigeria, in a one-sided game where they had few openings.

They were unfortunate to lose to Meadow Hall in the last minute in the final group game with some difficult refereeing decisions, meaning they went into a sub competition for fifth place. 

They would eventually finish seventh in the competition after winning their final game. Luis stood out in football throughout and gave 100 per cent. Raphael adapted very well to defence and played some excellent passes and Jamie and Alex D stood out playing new positions. Zayd managed to give people much bigger than him a really tough time and the team enjoyed their run, while Ido enjoyed his spell in defence playing his first competitive football. We also had a late appearance from Kaloyan in our final victory. This will be a good learning experience for the less experienced players and was a good opportunity for the more experienced to show their skill and leadership.

The girls' team had the same group as the boys and with a squad made up of nine players, eight of whom had not played football outside of PE, they showed magnificent improvement as the day went on. They lost the first game of the day to Campion 4-1 as they were getting used to the rules of the sport, but as almost all of them were playing their first game of competitive football it was to be expected. Improvement came immediately as they started to get used to positioning and Michelle and Vittoria shone with two goals each as they won game 2 4-2 against Bucharest. The girls then took on The Regent School in a tough physical game and came away with another win, as Martina made some amazing saves and Sophie had a fantastic game, learning so quickly about the strategy of the game. The final group game was against Meadow Hall of Nigeria, where the girls got yet another win thanks to goals from star strikers Vittoria and Michelle. In this game, the whole squad chipped in with Liubov emerging as a fearless defender with some great tackles and headers, Jayani and Enayah very solid in defence and Emese’s toughness and determination shining through again. This win meant the girls qualified for the semi final in their first ever football competition.

Here we came up against the eventual football and overall champions, St Catherine's of Greece. We lost narrowly against an experienced team who play together often. In this game, the star was Sofia G, who was outstanding in defence from start to finish. We faced Campion once again in the third/fourth playoff and lost 3-1, with Sophie G grabbing our goal. For the girls to finish fourth in this context was truly outstanding and we are so proud of them. The rate at which they improved throughout the day and how well they took instructions and learned while playing was fantastic to see, and will hopefully encourage further participation in the sport.

When all results were calculated at the end of the competition, we finished fifth overall which we should be very proud of, given the school's size. The eventual winners were St Catherine's of Greece.

On our final day of the trip, we went to Rome to visit the Colosseum, which was the second most requested location from the students behind McDonald's for our free morning. The students represented the school excellently in terms of their effort, unity and conduct, and contributed substantially to the Italian economy through purchases of ice cream and sugary sweets.