An Olympic debut for Darlington’s new campus

Teesside University’s new £13m five-storey Darlington campus hosted its first event with guest Charles Allen CBE, Chair of LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Paralympic Games) Nations and Regions.

Mr Allen met Darlington primary school pupils at the new campus to celebrate their Olympic-related activities at the University. LOCOG is responsible for preparing and staging the 2012 games.

The 15 year six (aged 10-11) pupils from Heathfield primary school and ten from Corporation Road recently took part in Teesside University’s annual Meteor Summer School, along with hundreds of other Tees Valley pupils.

Meteor was first launched in 1999 to inspire local primary pupils to think about further and higher education, through activities on and off campus.

This year’s Summer School had an Olympics theme, with activities that included designing and making clothing for the games, along with mascots and medals and a mini Olympic stadium and village structure.

The pupils also received inspirational talks and motivational exercise sessions from the University’s elite athlete students.

Teesside University has been awarded the Inspire Mark, awarded through the London 2012 Inspire programme, which recognises organisations that deliver projects and events genuinely inspired by the 2012 Games.

Only the most accessible, participative, inspiring and stimulating projects and events will achieve the Inspire Mark, which is part of the London 2012 brand.

The Chief Executive of Darlington Council, Ada Burns was another guest. Darlington Council is one of the Darlington campus’ funders, along with the University and One North East via Tees Valley Unlimited.

The guests were shown a video of the pupils working at the summer school. Then pupils described their team activities, such as Olympic T-shirt manufacture and model making and what they learned through this. Prizes were given for the best team presentation, which went to the team from Heathfield Primary School who made t-shirts. Charles Allen then presented prizes of official Olympic mascots to the winners.

Charles Allen said: 'It’s really exciting to see all the pupils’ hard work. There are 1,400 Inspire Marks throughout the UK and I’ve seen some amazing programmes. We want to make sure these will be amazing games and to make sure that you are all part of them.'

Ryan Colville, 11, from the winning presentation team, said: 'I enjoyed designing the t-shirts, getting to see how they were made and made stronger, it was really fun. The Meteor Summer School was brilliant, all the staff and students showed such kindness. I liked the buildings in Middlesbrough and I like the Darlington building, there’s a nice view.

'It’s good if you live in Darlington and have this building quite close. I’m also looking forward to watching the Olympics and seeing all the different world sports, it’s going to be exciting.'

Nicola Doyle, Teesside University’s Schools Colleges Partnerships & Recruitment Manager, said: 'We were very excited that the achievements of our Meteor pupils were the focus of the first official event hosted at the Darlington campus. It’s also a pleasure to be working in partnership to inspire young people through the 2012 Olympics.'

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