Although England had a disappointing World Cup campaign, the tournament has been a success in terms of helping pupils at a Crosby school with their English GCSE coursework. 

Year 10 students at St Mary’s College have been writing and performing their own match commentaries as part of drama-focused activity linked to the speaking and listening element of the curriculum. 

The aim was to encourage pupils to make language choices that suited the purpose of the task, and to display their awareness of a range of similes, methaphors and cliches. 

Pupil Patrick Nevin commented: “This was really good fun. It was a great idea to use a subject like football that we’re all really interested in to help us achieve more in our coursework.” 

Teacher Liz Connolly, who devised the exercise for her class, said:

“Developing a match commentary gave the pupils the opportunity to demonstrate a number of skills required at GCSE level. 

“I was delighted at the effort and enthusiasm they put into the task - it really brought out the best in them. 

“Of course, when the students receive their results, I hope they’ll be ’over the moon’ rather than ‘as sick as a parrot’ with how they’ve performed,” added Mrs Connolly.