Over the summer, asylym seeker students from Eritrea, Ivory Coast and Afghanistan have been attending English lessons at the Steelbacks Study Centre (Northants County Cricket Club) and the Cobblers Study Centre here at Sixfields. Using sport is a great way to engage young people in their education, and the group were soon learning lots of new vocabulary as they explored the stadium. They looked at all the stands and rooms behind the scenes like the changing rooms, players lounge, ticket office, club shop and training centre/athletics track. The boys had a go at acting out a press conference at the sponsors board. Adam Moreton and Pat Weston (the kit man) were setting up all the Cobblers kit in the dressing room for a home game the next day. We discussed the anti-racism campaign too. They even saw Clarence hiding out in the staff area.

In order to be able to do stadium orienteering, the students needed to know the compass points north, south, east and west in order to be able to find the right stand. We practised these terms and how to remember them, also the directions right, left, forward/straight on and backwards. The students then solved maths and English clues to find letters around the stadium to make the anagram 'goalkeeper'. This activity was useful as it got them used to understanding directions and locations whilst looking for particular places.

Stuart from the Football in the Community scheme led a football coaching session on the training pitch where the students enjoyed improving their skills, drills and took part in a highly competitive match.

Back in the study centre, we recapped the previous few sessions' English content such as describing people, telling the time, colours, dates and seasons. As a last task, the group wrote about their stadium tour using the photos they took earlier.