The Tour:

During the Easter holidays, Miss Costin, Miss Clark and Mrs Brown took 26 Year 9 and 10 students to Spain on Netball tour.

We were based in Salou but also spent a day in Barcelona.  On arrival in Span, it was a day to chill out by the pool and explore the hotel.  The hotel facilities included two swimming pools, pool tables and a games room!  The restaurant had plenty of choices meaning the girls could have something different every evening, and we must say, the food was excellent! 

On our second day, we were tourists in Barcelona. We spent the morning at Barcelona’s football stadium CAMP NOU, where we were educated in all things Lionel Messi and the history of the football club.  The students were taken on a stadium tour where they could explore the changing rooms, manager’s chairs, interview rooms and the tunnel leading out to the pitch. There were plenty of photograph opportunities here, which the girls were keen to utilise!  In the afternoon we were driven to Barcelona’s city centre where we walked the Le Ramblas and had some quality shopping time. The girls thoroughly enjoyed viewing and buying gifts for family members, but their highlight was the visit to ZARA where they spent their euros very quickly. On return to the hotel the key conversation was the netball coaching sessions planned for the next day. The girls were keen to wear their new tour tops and learn from experienced coaches. Evening entertainment for the night was a quiz which brought out the girls' competitive sides!

Early Tuesday morning, the girls had their netball kits on and were raring to go! This was the first of the netball and the girls were extremely excited!  The morning was set up into 6 stations where the girls rotated every 20 minutes.  Each station was led by a Level 3 netball coach, all of whom had great experience in the netball world. The stations all focused on different aspects of netball, which meant that all girls were catered for.  The girls worked on their ball handling skills, choosing the correct pass, defensive set up, use of the reverse arm, rotating in the shooting circle, and a fun body confidence talk from their favourite coach, Brian.  In the afternoon, the girls were able to put everything they had been taught into practice and play two friendly games.  Leventhorpe staff were so impressed with the girls' attitudes to learning and the progress they had made in just one day.  On return to the hotel, the girls were exhausted, but this didn’t stop them singing the whole way home.  They had some time in the pool before getting ready for dinner and an evening of Karaoke.  This was the girls' favourite evening of all. They all had a go in groups to sing and, boy, did they sing (scream).  Shout out to Olivia for her amazing vocals!!

Tournament day arrived!  The girls were in competitive spirits, and elated to be able to show off their new netball dresses.  They looked really smart and were out to perform. The tournament was split into two age groups.  The u15s were in one age group, and the u14s were in two teams and in the other age group.  There were two other schools there; Summerhill from Birmingham and Sandringham from St. Albans who also had multiple teams competing.  The girls all played some fantastic netball and the improvement from the beginning to the end was massive.

The U15s finished 2nd in their group losing to Sandringham As who won overall.  Well done to Niamh, Kacey, Olivia, Gracie, Ava, Brooke, Matilda, Bella and Ruby. The u14 Bs finished 3rd in their age group which was a massive achievement considering this was some of the girls first time playing against other schools. Well done to Charlotte, Amy, Issy C, Ruby, Isabelle, Lily, Amelia, Issy B and Ruby.

The u14 As had a brilliant tournament and went on to win overall which is an excellent achievement!  Congratulations to Myla, Izzy, Daisy, Zoey, Katie, Hannah, Eloise and Teagan.

The girls had such a fabulous day, and really enjoyed their netball experience. In the evening before dinner the girls had the coaches’ awards presentation, where each team was given their results and handed a trophy.  The coaches also selected a player of the tournament for each team.  Well done to Amy for the u14 Bs, Zoey for the u14 As and Niamh for the U15s.  Well deserved girls!  After dinner, the girls then had the final evening entertainment of a disco which they too really enjoyed and sang and danced their hearts out.

The girls really were a credit to the school.  They behaved impeccably and grew as individuals.  It was great to see the girls all getting along and spending time with others they wouldn’t normally spend time with back home.  We are extremely proud of the girls and loved every minute of the tour.

Well done Leventhorpe!

Leventhorpe Netball tour staff and students would like to thank their parents for allowing them to attend the trip and also give a huge thankyou to the sponsors who enabled us to buy new polo tops, hoodies and dresses for the tour. Thank you to: The Johnson family, Darren Brown at pastorfrigorGB and Jon Marsden at EDEN.