Meteor strike starts Summer School season

Thousands of school pupils, from the age of ten up to late teens, will gain a taste of University life by taking part in Summer Schools at the University of Teesside this July and August.

The first to arrive are 600 Year Six (ten and 11 year-old) primary school pupils on the award-winning Meteor Programme. Now in its third year, the Meteor school children will be taking over the campus from July 2-5 and from July 9-12.

The Summer School is the climax of the Meteor Programme and builds on earlier classroom-based work between University student mentors and school teachers which helps to raise aspirations and motivate the ten and 11 year-olds from primary schools in Middlesbrough and East Cleveland.

During the Summer School, the children will:

Utilise their creative skills with help from Cleveland Arts to create giant ‘thought bubbles’ which visualise their aspirations.

1. Experience a session in the University’s Virtual Reality Centre.

2. Pick up voice coaching and singing tips and learn about percussion and instruments in a Music workshop with the Gateshead Baltic Project.

3. Learn to avoid cooking mishaps with Teesside’s own ‘naughty chef’ Colin Wilkinson.

4. Find out more about nursing as a possible future career

5. Use a food hygiene detection system

6. Discover what makes a top athlete

7. Design futuristic items

The Meteor Programme is supported by Single Regeneration Budget funds and a Meteor Cyber Café has been created in the former bookshop in King Edward Square, Middlesbrough. The media are welcome to see the Summer School in action, including attending sessions on July 3 at 10am with Cleveland Arts; the Nursing session on July 5 from 11.30am to 12noon; Designing Your Future on July 10 from 11.30am to 12 noon; and the Music session on July 11 from 11.30 to 12.

Two graduation ceremonies will be held in Middlesbrough Town Hall for all the Meteor children on 17 July, with a procession from the University along Albert Road, leaving the University’s main entrance in King Edward Square, Middlesbrough, at 9.40am. The schools taking part this year are Abingdon, St. Alphonsus, Caldicotes, Saltburn, Breckon Hill, St. Joseph’s, North Ormesby, St Peter’s, Sacred Heart, Brambles and Loftus.

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