Eight CONEL learners celebrate after playing in the Unified Football event at the National Grid Sports Facility in Warwick on Thursday 14 May  

Eight learners from The College of North East London’s Supported Learning programme had the opportunity of a lifetime last week, when they were chosen to play at Tottenham Hotspur’s Training Ground in the presence of Spurs’ Manager, Harry Redknapp.

The game was part of the Unified Football event, which encourages able-bodied and disabled young people to play alongside each other as team mates. After the game they were joined by Redknapp for team photos, and each footballer was presented with a much-prized Special Olympics T-shirts signed by Harry and members of the Spurs team.

Unified Football is an initiative funded by the Special Olympics Community and this event was run in partnership with Spurs' Teach2Reach Community Programme. The CONEL learners were so impressive on the pitch that they have since played at another Unified Football event in Warwick, supported by National Grid, an official partner of Special Olympics Great Britain.

To find out more about the event, and the CONEL learners who attended, click on any of the thumbnail images below to open an image gallery.