How can we encourage children to choose running, jumping, cooperating and playing together when so much of their leisure time revolves around screens? At the Rafa Nadal Foundation, we believe the answer lies in listening to their interests and transforming them into educational opportunities.
With this in mind, we have introduced Fortnite PE at the Rafa Nadal Foundation Centre in Valencia, an activity inspired by the well-known video game Fortnite that brings its essence into the real world. The result is an experience completely removed from screens, where movement, cooperation and fun become the true protagonists.
Far from controllers, keyboards and mobile phones, children become the heroes of an adventure filled with physical challenges, skill-based activities and cooperative missions, where every participant plays an important role in helping their team progress.
After all, the aspects that make video games so engaging: excitement, strategy, overcoming challenges and teamwork, can also be experienced through physical activity.
What is Fortnite PE?
The activity recreates the dynamics of the popular video game while replacing screens with an active play environment.
Participants are divided into teams and must complete a series of different challenges throughout the game. Each challenge represents a mission that requires them to use a variety of physical and cognitive skills to reach the final objective.
Along the way, they encounter obstacle courses, coordination challenges, speed circuits, target games, balance exercises, strategic tasks and cooperative activities that require constant communication among teammates.
Just like in the video game, individual performance alone is not enough. Completing each mission requires helping one another, thinking before acting and making decisions together.
The result is a dynamic, exciting and highly engaging activity that keeps children motivated throughout the session while encouraging them to stay physically active from start to finish, often without even realising how much exercise they are doing.
Much More Than Physical Exercise
Although movement is at the heart of the activity, Fortnite PE also develops a wide range of skills that are essential for children’s overall development.
Each challenge encourages participants to solve problems, plan strategies, communicate with their teammates and adapt to changing situations. Teams often need to reorganise on the spot, find creative solutions or overcome unexpected obstacles in order to continue.
As a result, children strengthen important life skills such as:
- Cooperation and teamwork.
- Communication and active listening.
- Decision-making.
- Problem-solving.
- Creativity.
- Planning and strategic thinking.
- Resilience and frustration management.
- Confidence in themselves and in others.
Because the activity is cooperative, the focus shifts away from simply winning and towards achieving shared goals as a team. Every child contributes in a different way, allowing individual strengths to be recognised and valued for the benefit of the whole group.
A Fun Way to Promote Healthy Habits
One of today’s greatest challenges is tackling childhood sedentary lifestyles and excessive screen time.
Video games, social media and online content platforms occupy a significant part of many children’s and teenagers’ leisure time. That is why we are constantly looking for new ways to show that physical activity can also be exciting, enjoyable and capable of creating memorable experiences.
Fortnite PE is based precisely on this reality.
Instead of rejecting what children enjoy, we use their interests as a starting point to create a different educational experience. We preserve the elements that make the video game engaging, such as challenges, missions, strategy and teamwork, and transform them into an activity that promotes movement, social interaction and learning.
In this way, participants discover that they can experience the same excitement they feel when playing a video game while running, jumping, working together with their teammates and developing much healthier habits.
Innovating to Keep Connecting with Children
At the Rafa Nadal Foundation, we believe that education through sport also means embracing innovation.
New generations evolve, new forms of leisure emerge and children’s interests continue to change. That is why it is essential for sports activities to evolve as well, connecting with their reality while never losing sight of their educational purpose.
Introducing initiatives such as Fortnite PE does not mean bringing a video game into the classroom or onto the sports court. Instead, it means using a familiar reference point to create experiences that encourage physical activity.
When an activity feels meaningful, enjoyable and engaging, children become more involved, participate more actively and are more motivated to continue practising sport.
Learning Through Play, Growing Together
Across all Rafa Nadal Foundation programmes, we understand sport as a powerful educational tool and a driver of social transformation.
Every game, every challenge and every activity is an opportunity to promote values such as respect, effort, empathy, cooperation and commitment, while encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle.
Fortnite PE is a great example of how creativity and innovation can become powerful allies in bringing children closer to sport.
Because when we encourage children to swap screens for movement, virtual missions for shared challenges, and individual play for cooperationāeven if only for a few hoursāwe are doing much more than organising a sports activity. We are creating meaningful experiences that support their physical, emotional and social well-being, while reinforcing the idea that sport is one of the best ways to learn, have fun and grow.