Meteor prepares for raising aspirations Summer School

Around 500 children from 11 inner city primary schools in Middlesbrough will be taking over their local University, from Monday 3 July, as part of the award-winning Meteor Programme which aims to raise the aspirations of local youngsters in an area where few go on to higher education.

The University of Teesside's Meteor project won the personal endorsement of Prime Minister Tony Blair and Education Secretary, David Blunkett earlier this year. During a visit by some of the children involved in Downing Street, Mr Blunkett said he was "deeply impressed" with what the University of Teesside was doing because it was helping to change attitudes and raise the children's expectations of life. "It looks like a good model for others to follow and there should be an accolade for the University students who act as mentors on the programme," he said.

For a fortnight - from Monday 3 July until two 'mini' graduation ceremonies in Middlesbrough Town Hall on Friday 14 July - the ten and 11 year-olds will be 'occupying' the campus in central Middlesbrough for the Meteor Summer School. Activities will include:- · Sports to improve their hand-eye co-ordination and their understanding of how the body works · Visits to the University's high-tech showpiece - the Virtual Reality Hemispheriumä - to enjoy virtual flight simulations and other VR tricks · Children writing down what they would like to do in the future on strips of paper, which together with other materials will make a scarecrow, before ceremoniously burning it to return the materials and aspirations to the earth. · Using musical software to create their own CD-ROMs. The best tunes will be recorded and published on the Meteor Interactive Web Site.

Teesside's Nutty Professor Algernon von Rueckfahrt will provide a wild concoction of zany experiments and scientific curiosities, such as 'how light went round the bend' & 'how ice cubes burn', and a grand, fire-filled, audience-participatory, utterly nutterly explosive, musical finale!

There will also be a mock 'trial' to find out how evidence is given and decisions made with Meteor pupils dividing into Prosecution, Defence and Court Officials/Magistrates for a mock trial.

Discos in the Students' Union will show the social side of student life and two Certificate of Achievement Awards Ceremonies will be held in Middlesbrough Town Hall on Friday 14 July. The morning ceremony will be preceded by a procession of children in Meteor T-shirts from the University to the Town Hall, along Albert Road, Middlesbrough, at 9.40am (on the 14th).

Stefan Klidzia, Meteor Programme project officer, said: "Meteor's pilot year in 1999 was a great success, and the project has gone from strength to strength. A few months ago, a group of the Meteor children went to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister inside Number Ten; and this year five new primary schools in East Middlesbrough joined the original six schools involved last year. We are also keeping in touch with the children as they progress through secondary education and hope that some may return one day as University students."

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