The Real Madrid Foundation wasn’t after the next Garcia or Rodriguez upon arrival in Wellington this week.
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Instead the foundation focused on a unique student-development partnership with Wellington High School -the first of its kind in Australia.
Known as the charitable face of the world’s top team, the Real Madrid Foundation works with children throughout the world, using football to help develop positive values, boost school attendance and academic achievement.
Technical manager of football and training, and manager of the international department, David Gil Chapado said it was through the fun of football that different parcels of the Real Madrid Foundation philosophy were unpacked.
Coaches focused on technique, values and rules (like fair play), physical aspects (such as stamina, speed and response) and education, incorporating anything from the syllabus that schools wanted to apply.
This week it was metrical measurements and capital cities of the world as students had to run between the correct country and capital.
While it was a lot to take on, he said students always found it a fun challenge to mix sport with their subjects while learning positive values.
So far there have been a lot of encouraging results across all aspects of students’ lives.
He said the program focused on giving opportunity to all students including those who might be disadvantaged or having trouble at home.
It runs in 242 schools throughout 70 countries of the world and while Wellington High School is the first in Australia, the foundation wants to extend it to other Australian schools too.
Principal Don Harvey said it was an exciting time for Wellington High School.
“It is a fantastic system. Their values of sportsmanship, equity, tolerance, and respect are what we are all about as a school,” he said.
The foundation spent three days training coaches who in turn applied what they had learnt in student coaching sessions, supervised by the foundation.
Their next big step is to go with 22 students to Melbourne to watch Real Madrid play Manchester City.
It will be another two years before the coaches do another course, but they will continue to collaborate with the foundation.
The next step will be tailoring the program to the school’s desired outcomes and from there students will be encouraged to take part, doing three hours of training a week.
David Gil Chapado said he loved working on social values with Australian students for the first time at Wellington High School.
“I like Australia a lot. Wellington is a very quiet local town.
“People are so polite and by the second day it is like you are their friend. It has been a very nice experience and I have been happy to work here,” he said.