Sports Social School
The Real Madrid Sport School is a school dropout prevention program through sports, developed by the Real Madrid Foundation in partnership with the FDP Association – Protagonists in Education for children aged 6-14 from the most severe environments ( extreme poverty, single-parent families, danger of school dropout).
The methodology of this program is structured on the seven values of the great Spanish club: equality, autonomy, team spirit, motivation, self-esteem, health and respect.
65 children from two disadvantaged areas in Bucharest (Giulesti-Sarbi and Faur-Republica) are beneficiaries of this program which includes:
- 4 football training sessions / week,
- weekly meditations conducted with the help of 10 volunteers – students of St. Sava and Gheorghe Lazar colleges
- individual and group psychological counseling according to the needs of each child,
- counseling sessions for parents of children in the program and support in identifying jobs,
- leisure activities: children’s theater, film and museums, sports competitions.
More than 150 children have benefited from this program so far and every year their school and personal outcomes have been improving:
- no school dropout
- in 2016 all 3 graduates of the 8th grade were admitted to high school
- children have developed positive behaviors in their relationship with their parents, but also with the representatives of the schools (teachers, principal) and colleagues
- they have become motivated to engage in different activities and the autonomy in decision-making has increased
- easy integration into social groups
- reducing behavioral problems
- accepting failure and identifying solutions / ways to overcome difficult situations