Arsenal's Manuel Almunia visited pupils studying Spanish at Rotherfield Primary School, Islington.

The pupils who are piloting the award-winning scheme, welcomed the goalkeeper into their classroom to practice their language and soccer skills. The youngsters then took to their school hall for some goalkeeping training, using Spanish vocabulary, with an Arsenal in the Community Coach alongside Almunia.

The visit was arranged via the Arsenal Double Club, an innovative programme which was founded in 1998 - a 'Double' winning season for the Gunners. It uses Arsenal resources, interactive DVDs with first team players and football-based classroom exercises to make learning fun and relevant to young people's interests. It is uniquely designed, co-ordinated and devised by the Arsenal in the Community department. The 45-minute classroom session is followed by a 45-minute football coaching session - mirroring the two halves of 'the beautiful game.'

The Spanish Double Club was introduced in 2007 and to date has been undertaken in 24 secondary schools in London and the home counties with over 400 pupils successfully completing the senior school modules. As with all Double Club schemes, pupils are invited to Emirates Stadium for a tour upon completion of the six to eight week modules and other incentives are offered throughout. The scheme is being piloted in three primary schools in the club's locale before it is launched, rolled out and made available to any school wishing to use the resources - particularly in 2010 when Modern Foreign Language learning becomes compulsory in primary schools.

After the session Almunia said: "It's great to meet these children and help them with their lesson. They are so young that they have a lot of time to learn the language which is key. I wish I had been involved in a scheme like this at primary school to help me with my English. Learning a language at such a young age is very valuable."

The initiative has been recognised by some high profile figures and institutions, during a visit to the Gunners' north London home for an historic Anglo-French Summit, the work of the French Arsenal Double Club was showcased for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It has also been hailed by the European Commissioner for Multi-Lingualism, Leonard Orban and in July 2008, CILT, the National Centre for Languages, the Government's recognised centre of expertise on languages awarded the Arsenal Double Club The European Award for Languages.

Due to the success of the programme, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has agreed to fund a two year secondment to Arsenal Double Club to develop the modern foreign language module and to roll out the scheme across other Premier League clubs, as well as other football and sporting clubs nationwide. Julie Stoker, a languages teacher who has also previously worked in football television production will work closely with Arsenal's education partners, Cambridge Education@Islington to undertake the work.

Julie said: "With modern foreign language teaching becoming compulsory for primary schoolchildren in 2010, Arsenal, working in partnership with the Government, the local authority and other credible partners has shown real commitment to developing this area of their work in education. My work over the next two years will ensure the scheme is rolled out nationwide and accessible to those schools and organisations who want to try a different approach to French, Spanish and German learning. The Arsenal Double Club will also continue to aim to raise the profile and attraction of languages in secondary schools - motivating and encouraging those on the programme to take a language at GCSE."

There are a wide variety of other modules included in the Arsenal Double Club scheme including numeracy, literacy, science, geography, business studies, French, German and Spanish. To date, Arsenal's Double Club has been successfully completed by over 1600 pupils in over 80 schools.