Although the Rafa Nadal School facilities are located within the prestigious Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, the educational centre is open to all students, whether tennis players or not, who want to train in the warmth of one of the fastest growing educational institutions in the Balearic Islands in recent years. The Rafa Nadal School was born in 2016 training secondary school students, but in 2019 the long-awaited objective of being able to also offer a first class education for families who demanded the opening of the primary school was achieved.
Thanks to the expansion of the facilities and the incorporation into the project of Natalie Alcover, head of Primary Education, the school at this level has become an educational benchmark, following in the footsteps of what has already been implemented at secondary level. "Students come from a wide variety of countries and cultures, but all classes are taught in English. In our school we enjoy a unique environment because we are part of a much larger organisation. The children are lucky enough to enjoy wonderful facilities including indoor and outdoor swimming pools, an indoor gymnasium, tennis courts and a dining hall where they enjoy a five-star buffet lunch," says Alcover.
The success of the Rafa Nadal School, as Alcover herself analyses, is due to the great involvement of teachers, students and families: "The role of the latter is fundamental. They actively participate in the children's education and feel very safe with their children in the care of our school. We instil in them the same values that they would instil at home, values taken from Rafa Nadal himself".
In just two months' time, the eighth year of the Rafa Nadal School will complete their studies and will see the culmination of their educational process at the long-awaited graduation ceremony at which the Spaniard will be present. Last year, accompanied by Iga Swiatek (number 1 in the WTA ranking), Nadal conveyed to the students a message that has become very much part of the spirit of the school: "I hope you leave here with the necessary tools to face the future, whatever it may be. I have just one piece of advice for you: Give yourself opportunities. Don't get frustrated when things don't work out the first time, don't get frustrated when you've been trying for a while and things don't work out. Keep giving yourself chances. I have had many joys throughout my career, but I have also had many difficult moments with injuries or defeats and the best thing I have done in my life, with the help of all my team, is to keep giving myself opportunities. If you do this, the time will come when you will find the way to achieve your goals".
Many of the students who will graduate in June have already obtained scholarships to study at major universities in the USA and Europe next year. Others, on the other hand, will opt to continue their studies in Spain. The most important thing is that all of them will build their future by "giving themselves opportunities" day by day, to become great professionals and, above all, great people.