Football and linguistic immersion: the new campus making waves at Real Madrid City

The Real Madrid Foundation’s Campus Experience has featured a number of bilingual editions run in conjunction with Kings College over the years, but for the first time this summer, the programme has been rolled out in the classrooms at Real Madrid City. Among the offering of summer camps, an English-language immersion programme took place during the first two weeks of July. Some 100 youngsters, aged between nine and 13, enjoyed the opportunity offered by the Real Madrid Foundation to combine their passion for football with a comprehensive programme in English, with instructors who are native speakers or hold a C2 level in the language.

The initiative is part of the aim to improve and seek excellence within the Campus Experience provision, whilst increasing the available options and benefits surrounding the appropriate use of leisure time. The learning or reinforcement of languages during holiday periods is always something that parents seek and in this case it is combined with sport, values and Real Madrid.
 
The English-language campus was available for both internal and external students. As well as the classes being conducted in English, the football training and time in the swimming pool, lunchtime and games with the monitors involved the use of the English language. The success of this first year would certainly suggest that more participants are set to be involved next summer. Joaquín Sagués, director of the Campus Experience, commented: "We will increase the number of weeks next summer because all the places got filled up."
 
Record participation
This year marks the 13^th edition of the Real Madrid Foundation's Campus Experience and sees the programme break a record with of 5,000 participants set to be involved, making it
the world's biggest football summer camp in terms of the number of weeks and volume. Real Madrid City will be full of children who will get to enjoy a unique experience featuring football training, recreational and educational activities and academic training in the positive values of team sport and madridismo. The campuses will also be run across a further 16 venues located both within Spain and overseas.