'It was a really special few days that bonded us as a department.'

“I was impressed by Club Europe accommodating my requests and ideas for different excursions from our last tour. The excursions were a huge success.

“It was fantastic that Isabel sought out the places for us to go despite them not being on the official list, but just because my kids had requested them!

“We loved playing in the jazz club. Jazz-wise it was amazing and it was an electric atmosphere. Lots of whooping and cheering and standing ovations. Our best concert of the whole tour for sure. Lovely people and very welcoming. Great audience, the place was packed and we were pulling in people off the street with our playing. I would absolutely love to go back with my smaller jazz quartet and do a full set.

“In the church, the audience were of an age that knew every track we played, particularly the band and so they were all singing and clapping along and loving our sound. Again, a constant trickle of people were coming in off the street as they could hear us playing. There were young kids dancing to us so it was really lovely.

“The excursions were all a huge success and a massive part of the success of the tour. The kids absolutely loved them. The biggest successes were: the mini-golf, which frankly they would’ve stayed all day at if we left them; ten pin bowling, which they adored; the instrument museum; and the cycling through Bruges.

“Josh, our tour manager, was basically adopted by my pupils and staff and frankly they wanted to kidnap him and bring him back to school with us. They absolutely loved him because he was so down to earth with them, friendly and good humoured, spoke to them on such a great level, listened to them, learnt their names within an hour and took the time to get to know all of them so well.

“There was nothing Josh wouldn’t do for us. He literally made my life stress free and was one step ahead of me the whole time. He was just so passionate about his job it made us all love him instantly. He became part of the family literally within a matter of hours!”