The special summer school for 10 and 11-year-olds in Middlesbrough is mixing learning and having fun.

Pupils are learning more about the Internet (Photos: Teesside University)

The pupils involved are from Abingdon, Ayresome Junior, Breckon Hill, Newport, and Sacred Heart and St Joseph's RC schools.

They are being split into 15 groups for a variety of activities including visiting the university's virtual reality hemispherium and taking part in a knockout contest on the campus tennis courts.

They will also be participating in science experiments and in a What's My Line?-type quiz with staff from porters to professors.

Aspirational

There will be a mini graduation ceremony at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Friday.

The week is part of the university's Meteor Programme, supported by Middlesbrough Council and the Department for Education, which aims to raise the children's aspirations before they start secondary school.

Middlesbrough's Director of Education, Dr Cheryle Berry, said she thought it was wonderful that university students and lecturers were showing the children that higher education was within their grasp.

"In some areas of the south of England almost every child goes to university," she said. "We don't see why we shouldn't aspire for the same to be true here."

Mentoring

The children spent half a day at the university in February and since then they have been kept in touch with help from 48 student mentors.

One of them is 20-year-old physiotherapy student Samantha Illingworth.

"Some of the children said they had never thought about university before," she said, "but now many hope to come here.

"The graduation ceremony will show the children and their families that they've achieved something special."