Barcelona 2024

The Junior School were delighted to return to their flagship residential trip, Year 5 and 6 football and cultural tour to Barcelona. In March, thirty-four boys and five staff embarked on a journey to Barcelona for six days, taking in the sights, sounds and sports of one of Europe’s most beautiful and enchanting cities.

The footballing aspects of a trip to Barcelona are always at the forefront, and the boys enjoyed a phenomenal training session at Sport City Dani Jarque, the training complex of Espanyol football club. The boys were put through their paces by three of Espanyol’s academy coaches, before going straight into their first fixtures against an impressive CF Calafell club side. Situated in a village outside of Barcelona, Calafell have predictably an excellent setup as a club side in Spain, and the boys were thrilled to take on their three fixtures across two pitches fitted out with stands, changing rooms and even a small club shop. The football inevitably was incredibly difficult with the club sides in Barcelona comfortable and confident on the ball, but our touring footballers were resilient and hard-working in 26 degree heat. 

Further sporting highlights from the tour included a phenomenal night match for Espanyol vs Tenerife (a La Liga 2 fixture), where we were welcomed on the big screen of the RCDE Arena, and the obligatory tour bowling night with some fantastic performances. We also enjoyed an interesting and insightful tour of Barcelona Football Club’s being-refurbished Camp Nou, with their VR tour and three-storey club shop being the highlights for the boys.

Cultural aspects of the tour were also incredibly important and well-received by our pupils: the Sagrada Familia remains a highlight, whilst Barcelona Aquarium and Parc Guell were both beautiful and interesting experiences – particularly if you like sharks! The boys were lucky enough to spend most of a full day in the PortAventura Theme Park too, with some of our intrepid daredevils taking on some huge rides whilst others were happy to go on the smaller rollercoasters and log flumes, getting soaking wet on the way. We were also able to take in the sights of the city on a walking and a bus tour, taking in Las Ramblas, the Olympic Stadium and the Placa de Catalunya amongst others.

The boys, as always, were fantastic ambassadors for the school and were complimented regularly by Barcelona residents and tourists alike for their attitude and behaviour. They developed many aspects of their character also, with their resilience, sense of community and empathy for each other on show throughout.