Celebrating a Meteoric ten years

Five hundred pupils enjoy their own ‘mini-graduations’ from the University at Middlesbrough Town Hall - it's the tenth anniversary of our Meteor summer school.

Meteor was first launched by the University in 1999 to inspire local primary pupils to think about further and higher education, through a series of activities on and off campus, culminating in the summer school and ‘mini-graduation’ at Middlesbrough Town Hall.

The 2009 graduations see each year six (aged 10 to 11) pupil cross the stage to receive a certificate from the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Henderson, watched by their families, friends, teachers and VIPs in the audience.

When first launched in February 1999, Meteor was offered solely to Year Six pupils in six Primary schools in central Middlesbrough. Ten years later the programme has expanded to 14 Primary and 19 secondary schools from across the Tees Valley. Each year its core is topped-up by 500 Year Six pupils from 14 primary schools from across the Tees Valley.

At this year’s summer school the pupils designed and made their own art structures, inspired by a model of the forthcoming public art structure Temenos, which will be unveiled at Middlesbrough’s Middlehaven site next year.

All completed models were displayed to the pupils’ parents, families and VIPs on a showreel. The real models were viewed at the University after the ceremony in the University’s Students’ Union.

Thousands of pupils have passed through Meteor Sharon Bimson, Schools Colleges Partnerships & Recruitment Manager at Teesside University, said: 'Over the last ten years thousands of pupils have passed through the Meteor programme.

'This shows the University’s commitment to our local community as we believe everyone can come to university. We want our young community to achieve their best and we want to inspire them to do their best.'

Factfile

Meteor engages pupils, parents and teachers from year six onwards. The programme interacts with these three groups over the school sears six, seven, sight and nine (aged 13 to 14). Meteor supports the vital transition period between primary and secondary school, when traditionally young people can dip in performance and behaviour and can be a traumatic experience for some.

The University’s students support activities both on campus and in their schools and act as positive role models through their work in the classroom and their support of extra curricula activities. The Programme links and tracks pupils from year six to year nine to promote the view that ‘learning is fun’ and engages with pupils and their families.

Prominent national recognition for Meteor came in 2000 when several of the first Meteor cohort was invited to Downing Street. The pupils met the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and several cabinet members.

The higher education marketing organisation Heist was commissioned to independently research the impact of Meteor in 2006. The research explored the experiences of pupils, school staff, parents and mentors on the programme. One of the main findings was the difference Meteor has made on how the pupils believe in their potential to go onto university, and how they feel they have 'grown up' with Teesside. The research also revealed a big change in pupils’ perception and attitude.

Meteor was also selected by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in 2007 as a model of best practice in Key Stage 2/3 transition. The HEFCE funding enabled the Meteor team to publicise the Meteor framework to other Universities in a series of events across the UK. Delegates from universities were invited to see the scheme in action and discuss the best way to encourage young people from families with no experience of higher education to consider university study.

In addition, the team has developed a toolkit and consultancy services for those higher education institutions who wish to examine the Meteor model in detail, and possibly adapt it for their own institutions. HEFCE also funded a follow-up conference, held at the University in spring 2008, which attracted representatives from 11 diverse higher education institutions. 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.

Conference visitors 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.

---