COBIS Primary and Secondary Games to be Hosted in the UK 

Following a successful tender process, the COBIS Games are due to be hosted in the UK for 2017 and 2018. Having exchanged letters of intent with Stowe School, Buckingham for the Primary Games and Sheffield City Council for the Secondary Games, we are excited to work with these two organisations to plan, develop and professionalise the COBIS Games. We are confident that both hosts will deliver fantastic events, aligned with British National Governing Body standards for swimming, athletics and football.

We are currently in the process of preparing contracts and will be able to provide full information on the Games, and how to register your interest in participating, in early September. However, provisional dates have been agreed as:

• The COBIS Primary Games are planned to take place at Stowe School in Buckingham 11-13 April 2017
• The COBIS Secondary Games are planned to take place in Sheffield city 19-21 May 2017.

Stowe School - the host of the 2017 COBIS Primary Games

The COBIS Games is an exciting and unique sporting event which draws together young people from around the world to take part in three days of competitive sport. The event is not only a celebration of sport for young people, but also a celebration of a shared global community with a common link to the UK. Should your school wish to host the COBIS Games in the future, please email Catriona Lawless, COBIS Student Engagement Officer at pa@cobis.org.uk. 

Haileybury Astana hosts the 2016 COBIS Primary Games

After an action-packed four days at Haileybury School Astana, the results are in! Students from six continents attended to take part in swimming, athletics and football in a bid to become the winners of the COBIS Primary Games 2016!

Congratulations to St Saviour's School, Ikoyi who once again have been crowned overall winners of the COBIS Primary Games. This is the third time that the school from Nigeria have been crowned champions of the Primary Games - a truly outstanding achievement.

Runners-up were St Catherine's British School from Athens while The British School Al Khubairat, winners of the 2016 COBIS Secondary Games, took home the bronze medal.

The final Championship table can be viewed below:

For full results in every category in the athletics, swimming and football events, please visit the official COBIS Astana 2016 results page.

Congratulations to each and every athlete who took part in this year's games - the athleticism on show was a sight to behold!

For a host of brilliant photos from the COBIS Primary Games, please see Haileybury Astana's Facebook Page.

Dubai College hosts COBIS Secondary Games 2016

The COBIS Secondary Games took place at Dubai College from 10-12 March 2016 with teams travelling from Africa, Europe and Asia to take part. 

Over three days, the students competed in athletics, swimming and football in a bid to win the overall championship. 

The opening ceremony kicked off the Games at the Hamdan Sports Complex, the largest aquatic centre in the world! 

First up was swimming, which, after a gruelling day of hard competition, the British School of Al Khubairat won with 200 points, pipping Dubai College to the post by just 10 points and St Catherine's British School, Athens by 20 points.

Day 2 of the Games got underway at New York University, with the talented students turning their skills to athletics. After a fun-fuelled day on the track and field, Dubai College came out on top with 200 points, King's College Madrid came in second with 190 points and the International School of Madrid came third with 180 points. 

The final day of the Games took place at Dubai College with students raring to get going on the football tournament. After an intense day on and off the pitch, the British School of Al Khubairat were once again crowned first place with second place awarded to King's College Madrid and third place to Dubai College.

After a quick turnaround, the closing ceremony took place at Jebel Ali Resort with a spectacular firework display.

During the closing ceremony, the British School of Al Khubairat was awarded first place in the COBIS Secondary Games, with Dubai College coming in second place and King's College Madrid in third place. 

Congratulations to the winning teams and to all who participated, particularly the students and staff who spent so much extra time training and preparing for this fantastic event. 

COBIS would like to thank all at Dubai College for hosting such a fun and successful 2016 Secondary COBIS Games. We are also grateful to all Contributors and Sponsors. 

Click here for films of each day of the COBIS Secondary Games or to view photos from the Games, please click here. 

Final Results  

For individual results, please click here for the COBIS Secondary Games website. 

The COBIS Primary and Secondary Games 2015 ran in parallel with each other from Thursday 14 - Saturday 16 May 2015 at the prestigious Olympic Centre in Athens, Greece.

The third year of the COBIS Games attracted a total of 512 students from 28 schools, the largest turnout so far.  Over the three days, the Secondary and Primary student sportsmen and women competed in 3 disciplines; athletics, swimming and football.

The Opening Ceremony got the Games off to an exciting start in sunny Athens, with St Catherine's Drum Band welcoming teams to the stadium.

COBIS 2015 Primary Games

On the first day of the Primary Games, our budding student swimmers dived into their first event; the Live Primary Swimming. After competing over an impressive array of swimming categories, The British School Al Khubairat made the biggest splash, taking 1^st place.  St Saviour's School, Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria was in close pursuit, scooping up 2^nd place, followed by St Catherine's British School in 3^rd.

On the second day of the competition, primary athletes arrived to face their next challenge at the Live Primary Athletics.  After an exciting day of track and field events, St Saviour's School, Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria sprinted in to take the gold medal in 1^st place.  Hot on their heels, The British School Al Khubairat scooped up 2^nd and The British School in The Netherlands took 3^rd.

On the third and final day, the students arrived to face their last challenge at the Live Primary Football event. From the moment the whistle blew for kick off, an outstanding display of talent was evident on the fields. At the end of the day, King´s College School La Moraleja came away with 1^st place, followed closely by The International School of Moscow in 2^nd and in 3^rd place was The British School in The Netherlands.

After a fantastic three days of sporting achievements from all COBIS schools, the Championship table named St Saviour's School, Ikoyi Lagos, Nigeria the winners of the 2015 COBIS Primary Games, followed by The British School Al Khubairat in 2^nd place and joint 3^rd place was shared between St Catherine's British School and The British School in The Netherlands. COBIS would like to congratulate the winning schools and every school that participated in the 2015 COBIS Primary Games to make it the success that it was.

Please click here to visit the COBIS Games Athens website for the full list and table of results.

Final Results

COBIS 2015 Secondary Games

The Secondary games started with the Athletics, seeing 16 teams compete over a wide range of track and field events and after a long day of adrenalin-fuelled competition, the winners were announced. Dubai College took 1^st place, followed by King's College Madrid in 2^nd and The British School in The Netherlands in 3^rd.

On the second day of the games, the talented students took to the pool to compete in various swimming events.  After an incredible day in the water, Dubai College, once again took 1^st place, followed by an impressive 2^nd place from the Egypt British International School and the valiant hosts St Catherine's British School scooped up 3^rd place.

After two days of inspiring victories and achievements from all participating schools, the final day arrived for the students to take on the football tournament. An amazing level of talent saw schools share the place of 1st and 2nd. The British School in The Netherlands and Dubai College scored the shared goal of 1^st place, with King's College Madrid and Campion School Athens gaining a very close 2^nd.  Just behind them was the British School of Amsterdam with 3^rd place.

After an incredible three days of sporting excellence, only one school could take away the prestige of 1st place in the COBIS Secondary Games and that was Dubai College. Coming in 2^nd place was King's College Madrid. In 3^rd place the competition was so high that it was shared by two schools; Campion School Athens and St Catherine's British School.

Congratulations to our winning schools and thank you to all participating schools for making the COBIS 2015 Secondary Games the biggest and most exciting yet. 

COBIS would like to thank St Catherine's British School for hosting the 2015 COBIS Games as well as sponsors Kukri. We are also grateful to all other Contributors and Sponsors who can be seen here. 

Please click here to visit the COBIS Games Athens website for the full list and table of results.

Final Results

The Primary Invitation Cup - Winners Announced

COBIS schools and students from around the world took part in another sporting Championship last week, The Primary Invitation Cup, hosted by King's College: The British School of Alicante.  Running alongside the COBIS Games 2015, the Primary Invitation Cup included a full schedule of football and track and field events, with eight schools competing from across Europe and Asia. The young athletes’ fantastic achievements were recorded over the course of the competition from 14-16 May and the COBIS team would like to extend their thanks to the host school and the schools that participated in the competition and made it such a success.

After two full days of sporting triumphs, King’s College Madrid took the Gold medal, followed by St. George’s International School, Luxembourg with the Silver Medal and Newton College, Elche, Spain taking the Bronze Medal. 

Peter Sloan (King's College: The British School of Alicante) congratulated the student athletes on their contributions and for their “positive, enthusiastic, polite and friendly” attitudes.  He also extended a big thank you to the coaches who were “positive, practical and very supportive” and whose “enthusiasm and good humour were much appreciated and made running the event a pleasure.”

Please see below for the Final Results.

The Prague Invitational Cup - Winners Announced

COBIS students from around the world headed to Prague in May 2015 to compete in the Prague Invitational Cup, hosted by Park Lane International School. Taking place a week after the COBIS Games and the Primary Invitation Cup, it was the last event in the COBIS sporting calendar for this year. The COBIS team would like to extend their thanks to the host school and the schools that participated in the competition, making it a fun-fuelled weekend. 

The programme kicked off on Thursday 21 May with athletics, with strong performances in both track and field events from the athletes. Football and basketball were contended on the Friday with swimming being the final competition on the Saturday.

Congratulations to the International School of Moscow for winning the Girls Competition, Prague British School for winning the Boys Competition and the International School of Moscow for winning overall. 

The final results were:

1. International School of Moscow
2. Prague British School
3. Park Lane International School (First team)
4. Haileybury Almaty
5. Park Lane International School (Second team)

All the students were a credit to their schools and countries and were true sportsmen and sportswomen throughout. 

To see more photos from the events, please click here.  

2014 COBIS Games for Primary Schools

The 2014 COBIS Primary Games were hosted by proud winners of the 2013 trophy, The British School Al Khubairat (BSAK) in Abu Dhabi. Over three days of competition, 16 teams competed against each other in 3 sports - basketball, swimming and football.

The competition started with the opening ceremony on Thursday 29 May. This was attended by His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan as well as the British Ambassador and Ambassadors from other Emirates within the UAE.

On Friday 30 May, 3 days of sporting competition started with the basketball competition. The International School of Moscow was triumphant overall while the British School in The Netherlands won the Plate competition.

On day 2, the swimming competition was hotly contested by teams in the 50m swimming pool at the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi. Overall, hosts The British School Al Khubairat were triumphant in a contest which saw some fantastic performances from many students.

On the final day, it was the turn of the footballers to try to win the final points for their teams. There were some stand out performances throughout the day with both the boys and the girls working hard and scoring goals aplenty! The Prague British School were victors at the end of a long day of competition with the Egypt British International School winners of the Plate. 

In the Closing Ceremony on the final day, all staff and students eagerly awaited the announcement of the overall winners. There were shrieks of joy all around the auditorium when it became clear that the 2014 trophy was heading to St Saviour's School, Ikoyi in Nigeria. This outstanding achievement was enthusiastically celebrated by both the school pupils and staff and all those who had attended the ceremony. Our worthy winners were delighted to receive the huge trophy which will take pride of place in the school.

Also awarded at the Closinng Ceremony was the COBIS Fair Play award for the school which showed outstanding sportsmanship over the 3 days of competition. This was awarded to St Catherine's British School, Athens, hosts of the 2015 Primary and Secondary Games.

Thanks to all the staff at the British School Al Khubairat for their organisation of the Games both in advance of the competition and during the event. Special thanks to Jo Czerpak who worked tirelessly from the start of the school term to ensure the Games were a success. The event was outstanding due to the hardwork of Jo and his team.

Full details of the final scores are below. The event was also covered by Abu Dhabi Sports magazine, Sport 360. Click here to read their coverage.

Congratulations to all teams who participated and we look forward to welcoming staff ansd students at the 2015 Primary and Secondary Games hosted by St Catherine's British School, Athens next year.

Final Results
St Saviour's School, Nigeria                                        550
St Catherine's British School, Greece                          520
The British School Al Khubairat, United Arab Emirates  520
International School of Moscow, Russia                       510
St George's International School, Luxembourg              470
Prague British School, Czech Republic                        440
Egypt British International School, Cairo                      410
The British School in The Netherlands                         410
British International School Cairo, Egypt                      400
British International School Istanbul, Turkey                 380
British School of Bucharest, Romania                         350
Haileybury Astana, Kazakhstan                                  350
Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan                                  340  
Geneva English School, Switzerland                           290
Temple School, Nigeria                                              290

Congratulations to all teams who took part in the 2014 COBIS Primary Games. 

2014 COBIS Games for Secondary Schools

The inaugural COBIS Games for secondary schools were held at British International School Istanbul, Turkey from Thursday 15 May - Saturday 18 May 2014. Teams from 12 COBIS schools across Europe, the Middle East and Africa came together for three days of competitive sport in a contest which has now become a regular fixture in the COBIS student competitions calendar.

This hotly contested event started with the traditional opening ceremony involving all teams. This was followed by the first event of the Games - the athletics. In a hard fought contest, St George's International School, Luxembourg were victorious followed by the British School in The Netherlands in second place and King's College Madrid in third.

On day 2, it was the turn of the girls and boys football competition. This time St Catherine's British School, Greece were the winners followed by King's College Madrid and International School of Moscow in joint second place.

In the final day of competition, it was time for the swimming gala. All teams fought hard to get as many points as possible on the last day of competition but it was St Catherine's British School, Greece who were the victors closely followed by the British School in The Netherlands and the host school, the British International School Istanbul.

The overall winners of the inaugural COBIS Games for secondary schools was St Catherine's British School, Greece. In second place was the British School in The Netherlands followed by three teams in joint third place - King's College Madrid, St George's International School, Luxembourg and the International School of Moscow, Russia. Congratulations to our winners and to all the students and staff who participated and helped to make this event such a success. Particular thanks to Carolynne Bell from the British International School Istanbul who helped to organise the competition with such skill and meticulous organisation.

The full results of the inaugural COBIS Games for secondary schools are below. To view the Games Brochure, please click here.

COBIS looks forward to welcoming students and staff at the second COBIS Games for secondary schools which will be held at St Catherine's British School, Greece next year.

Participating Schools

• Berlin British School, Germany
• British International School Cairo, Egypt
• British International School Istanbul, Turkey 
• British International School of Stavanger, Norway
• Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan
  
• Haileybury Astana, Kazakhstan
• International School of Moscow, Russia
  
• King's College Madrid, Spain
• Rainbow International School, Uganda
• St Catherine's British School, Greece
• St George's International School, Luxembourg
• The British School in The Netherlands

Final Results

Day One - Athletics
Team                                                                        Points
St George's International School, Luxembourg        120
The British School in The Netherlands                       110
St Catherine's British School, Greece                         100
King's College Madrid, Spain                                          90
Rainbow International School, Uganda                        80
International School of Moscow, Russia                       70
British International School Cairo, Egypt                       60
British International School Istanbul, Turkey                50
British International School of Stavanger, Norway      40
Haileybury Astana, Kazakhstan                                      30
Berlin British School, Germany                                      20
Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan                                      10

Day Two - Football
St Catherine's British School, Greece                       120
King's College Madrid, Spain                                      110
International School of Moscow, Russia                   110
St George's International School, Luxembourg         90
Rainbow International School, Uganda                      80
British International School Cairo, Egypt                    70
The British School in The Netherlands                       60
British International School of Stavanger, Norway    50
Haileybury Astana, Kazakhstan                                    40
British International School Istanbul, Turkey              30
Berlin British School, Germany                                     20
Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan                                      10

Day Three - Swimming
St Catherine's British School, Greece                          120
The British School in The Netherlands                        110
British International School Istanbul, Turkey               100
International School of Moscow, Russia                       90
British International School Cairo, Egypt                       80
King's College Madrid, Spain                                          70
St George's International School, Luxembourg            60
Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan                                        50
British International School of Stavanger, Norway        40
Rainbow International School, Uganda                          30
Haileybury Astana, Kazakhstan                                        20
Berlin British School, Germany                                        10

Overall Results
St Catherine's British School, Greece                       340     1
The British School in The Netherlands                     280     2
King's College Madrid, Spain                                      270     3
St George's International School, Luxembourg       270     3
International School of Moscow, Russia                   270     3
British International School Cairo, Egypt                   210      6
Rainbow International School, Uganda                    190      7
British International School Istanbul, Turkey            180      8
British International School of Stavanger, Norway    130     9
Haileybury Astana, Kazakhstan                                      90    10
Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan                                       70    11
Berlin British School, Germany                                       50    12

The impressive COBIS Games trophy finds a new home in Abu Dhabi. Congratulations to British School Al Khubairat

More than 200 students from as far afield as Asia, Africa and the Middle East were invited to The Hague this past weekend for the COBIS Games 2013, hosted by The British School in The Netherlands (BSN).

Having been crowned champions at the first ever COBIS Games in 2012, the BSN were given the honour of hosting and organising the games this year. The COBIS Games brought together children between the ages of nine and eleven to compete for the opportunity to be the COBIS Games Champions 2013. You are invited to review the official COBIS Games video which captures the mood of the games brilliantly.

Following a colourful Opening Ceremony on the Thursday evening, it was down to business on Day 1 of the competition as the Basketball tournament got underway. The competition produced a series of captivating matches, but it was The British School Al Khubairat, who secured the Basketball title after winning silver medals in both the boys and girls tournaments.

The Athletics competition on Day 2 was equally if not more enthralling with COBIS Games records tumbling throughout the day. After a flurry of gold and silver medals in the final few events, which included some captivating races, the BSN successfully retained the sought after Athletics title they’d won in 2012.

Going into the final day and the much anticipated mixed boys and girls Football competition, several teams were still very much in the running for the overall COBIS Games title. Two of these - King’s College Madrid and The British School Al Khubairat - made it through to a thrilling final. The match was finally decided by two fantastic efforts from the Spanish team, resulting in a 2-0 victory and a well-deserved triumph in the Football tournament for King’s College Madrid.

If, however, there was any disappointment in the British School Al Khubairat camp it was to be extremely short lived, as within a matter of minutes after collecting their silver medals for the Football competition, they were announced and confirmed as the overall COBIS Games 2013 Champions, after accumulating the highest points tally across the 3 days.

At the Closing Ceremony, COBIS Honorary President, Sir Roger Fry CBE congratulated all 15 teams and highlighted how their commitment, enthusiasm, competitive spirit and respect for respect for fellow competitors was a ‘true inspiration for all to see’

Shortly after the victory ceremony Gillian Ensor, a team staff member from The British School Al Khubairat, spoke on behalf of the school on what it meant to win the COBIS Games 2013 title;

“The British School of Al Khubairat is absolutely delighted to have won the second COBIS Games. Our children have talked, eaten, slept and trained COBIS for months and this is a fantastic culmination for all their efforts. All of the team members are so proud of one another, and we as teachers could not have asked for a better team. Not only have the children excelled in sport, but it’s also been a great cultural and social experience for them as well. We would like to like to thank the British School in The Netherlands for hosting the event and organising it so wonderfully”.

Following the event and on behalf of the global COBIS network, Colin Bell, COBIS Executive Director has expressed words of praise and congratulations to students and to all team leaders from each participating school. He commented that the COBIS Games would not have been possible without the ‘outstanding commitment, energy and dedication’ shown by teachers, leaders and support staff. COBIS also thanks the large numbers of parents who travelled great distances to show their support.

Finally, COBIS would like to thank the entire BSN school community; the volunteers, parents, teachers, business units and leadership team and in particular Jessica Monkivitch, 2013 COBIS Games Event Manager and Jamie Lowe, 2013 COBIS Games Sports Manager on delivering a fantastic and truly memorable event for all!

2012 COBIS Games

Games Handbook

Games Rules and Regulations

Games Timetable

Games Programme

To review photos and full results from the successful 2012 COBIS Games, hosted by the Prague British School click here