It sounds like every student's dream - rather than pore over text books, study by watching television.

That's what these asylum-seekers at a Sussex school have been doing with the blessing of their teacher.

And this week they finally met their virtual tutors, Richard Whiteley and Carol Vorderman, stars of the hit Channel 4 game show Countdown.

Students Cornel Soimanu, from Moldova, Ferdinand Twambase, from Rwanda, Douda Bangaura, from Sierra Leone, and Bobby Subramonium, from Sri Lanka, all aged 15, travelled to Leeds this week to watch their favourite show being filmed.

Maggie Morgan, their teacher at Boundstone College in Lancing, said: "They are great fans of Countdown.

"Cornel started watching it on the TV when he came home from school and just loved it because it helped him find out about English words he didn't know about.

"He then told the others about Countdown. The Tamil boy from Sri Lanka didn't use our alphabet and it has helped him get used to the English letters.

"Then it spread to the African boys and they all just became fans.

"They decided they wanted to write to Richard Whiteley, and they got help from our learning support assistant.

"They were really excited when they got the reply with the free tickets."

After watching the show being filmed, the GCSE students were thrilled to meet the hosts and have their pictures taken with Whiteley.

They have been pupils at Boundstone for under a year but have all become accomplished wordsmiths thanks to the TV programme.

Mrs Morgan said the students regularly managed to make up five or six-letter words while watching the show, while Cornel had even managed nine letters.

She said: "The headteacher here has an open-door policy to young asylum-seekers because other schools are not so keen to admit them.

"We have 28 ethnic minority students on the roll at the moment and we have a lot of asylum-seekers.

"We are rather proud of that."

The boys are among five million viewers who tune in every day to see Whiteley and Vorderman bicker and banter their way through the 45-minute show.

Countdown has elevated Whiteley to cult status among students and pensioners and has sent Vorderman into television superstardom.

As the first programme to be screened on Channel 4, it has been appealing to lexicographers and number-crunchers since 1982.