A Meteoric conference

The University’s trailblazing Meteor programme, which has won national awards, has hosted its first conference.

Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the event attracted representatives from 11 diverse higher education institutions (HEIs). These included the Universities of Aston, Birmingham, Bradford, Bolton, Canterbury Christ Church, Leeds, Liverpool, Middlesex, Wolverhampton and a representative of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

The conference followed several HEFCE supported events, held nationwide in December 2007, to spread the word to other UK HEIs about the Meteor scheme, which is seen as a trailblazer for its pioneering work in reaching primary and secondary pupils. The conference gave those interested a chance to see the scheme in action.

The visitors to Teesside took part in a variety of workshops and heard from the Meteor team how to adapt the Meteor model for their own institutions.  They also had the opportunity to experience a visit to the University by local primary and secondary school pupils.

Year Six (aged 10-11) pupils from Viewley Hill School in Middlesbrough took part in sports activities and were also transformed into presenters in the University’s radio station, UTRN (University of Teesside Radio Network). They gave a mock broadcast, which included topical news, sport and weather items.

Ryan Swales, 11, said: ‘I’ve changed my opinion about going to University after being here. There’s lots of fun activities and I’d like to come to Teesside when I’m older as it’s closer for me to get to. I was really nervous reading the Champions League results from last night.’

Rachel Pyle, also 11 said: ‘My Mam works in the University library and she wants me to go to University. When I’m older I’d like study English, Maths and Science and then to go to Greece and teach English. Reading the weather was quite scary.’

Barbara Sherlock from Liverpool Hope University was one of the conference visitors. She is part of their Widening Participation team and they are looking to expand their activities to primary pupils. She said: ‘Teesside has shown the way ahead with Meteor, it’s a wonderful opportunity to share their experience. What’s so impressive is the total buy in to the scheme, from the local community, the school teachers, and the University’s own students and academic staff.’

Gary Crawley, Schools and Colleges Recruitment Manager (Pre-16 and Meteor) said: ‘This was an excellent opportunity to share with colleagues from HEIs across the country the good practice we have developed through Meteor at the University of Teesside over the last ten years  A  Meteor toolkit has also been produced and will be available to institutions shortly.’ 

Factfile The University of Teesside first launched Meteor in 1999 as an initiative to inspire primary children from six Middlesbrough schools to think about the benefits of further and higher education. Summer schools on the campus were held and ten pupils on the pilot year even visited Tony Blair and met members of the Cabinet during 2000 in Downing Street.

Since then Meteor has expanded massively and now includes young people in secondary schools throughout Teesside – and each year the core of the Meteor programme is topped-up by 500 Year 6 from 14 primary schools from across the Tees Valley.

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