Meteor hits five new primary schools!

Around 500 Middlesbrough primary school children will be getting a taste of life as a Teesside University student during the next two weeks (7-17 February, 2000) as part of the pioneering Meteor Programme.

The Meteor project, funded by the Single Regeneration Budget, aims to raise the aspirations of young people – some as young as ten years old. It was piloted last year with 300 Year Six (10 and 11 year-olds) from the six central Middlesbrough primary schools in the immediate vicinity of the University of Teesside.

Now it has been expanded to take in five more primary schools - Brambles Farm, North Ormesby, Thorntree, Caldicotes and St Alphonsus RC – some of which are in the East Middlesbrough Education Action Zone. Children from these schools plus Year Six pupils from the six original Meteor schools – Sacred Heart, Newport, Ayresome, Abingdon, St Joseph’s and Breckon Hill – will be spending half-a-day each from Monday 7 February at the University. The visit will include organised sports, science experiments and an Internet treasure hunt with tickets to the Boro-Sheffield Wednesday game as prizes. There will even be a disco in the Students’ Union to give a fuller flavour of student life. (Visits from 9.30-12 and 12.50-3.10pm)

Stefan Klidzia, Meteor Project Officer, said: "We are all looking forward to welcoming the ten and 11 year-old children on to the campus. The children have already got to know some of our student mentors who regularly work with the pupils in their schools. In July, we will be holding our Meteor Summer School, when children from the different schools will mix together and enjoy a wide range of social and educational activities."

Meteor now also includes Year 7 children in local comprehensive schools – King’s Manor, Hall Garth, Brackenhoe, St David’s, Ormesby, Newlands, Acklam Grange, Coulby Newham, MacMillan and St Anthony’s - who took part in last Year’s pilot programme. They will keep in touch with the University via a BT-sponsored Internet project and through University student mentors.

In March, a group of ten Meteor children will be making a special visit to Downing Street with some of the University mentors and Meteor organisers. The trip also includes the Houses of Parliament and the Millennium Dome. More details later.

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