We spoke to Beverly McCallion, Deputy Head Teacher at Bede Community Primary School in Gateshead, about her school’s first year working with IntoUniversity and the difference she’s already seeing for pupils and families.
As a new academic year gets underway, schools across the country are welcoming students back through their doors and helping them think about what the year ahead might hold.
For Bede Community Primary School in Felling, Gateshead, that means continuing to help children develop the confidence, curiosity and belief they need to make the most of their futures.
Deputy Head Teacher Beverley McCallion has worked at the school for 22 years. She first joined as a supply teacher and, despite spending time working elsewhere, has always found her way back.
For Beverley, what keeps her at Bede is simple: its children and families.
“I feel we do make a difference and that the children and the families deserve the best.”
That belief in supporting children as whole people is something she sees reflected in the school’s partnership with IntoUniversity, which opened its Gateshead centre in 2025.
Bede Community Primary was one of the schools to work with IntoUniversity during its first year in Gateshead.
The partnership began before the new centre had even opened, with IntoUniversity delivering a programme of progressive sessions for pupils in Years 3 to 6 within the school.
For Beverley, the relationship was positive from the very beginning.
“I found them incredibly personable,” she says. “If you feel that you’ve got people who care and people who value the families and the children, that came through from their very first meeting with us.”
The first year gave pupils the opportunity to learn about university, university life and different subjects, with each session building on the last.
When the Gateshead centre opened, the partnership developed further. Year 6 pupils took part in a five-day FOCUS Week at the centre, giving them the chance to learn in a completely different environment.
For Beverley, seeing the children outside their usual classroom revealed something important.
“I was amazed by the presentations that they pulled together and the collaboration that went on,” she says. “The groupings that don’t necessarily work in school did work because they were in a different place. It wasn’t school. It was a totally different thing.”
The programme also connected learning to the world beyond the classroom, from exploring marine life and conservation to discovering people and careers the children had never encountered before.
“They came back buzzing,” says Beverley. “It expanded horizons.”
For Beverley, one of the most powerful aspects of IntoUniversity’s work is that it introduces young people to possibilities they may never have considered for themselves.
She remembers children returning from the FOCUS Week talking about creative subjects and careers, including forensics.
“They were learning that academic doesn’t just mean that I’m good at Maths and English,” she says. “There are lots and lots of other things I could do.”
The same applies to university itself.
For Bede’s families, university has not traditionally been part of their experience, and Beverley says that IntoUniversity has helped make it feel like a real possibility.
At the pupils’ “graduation”, a trip to a local university which marks the end of a FOCUS Week, around a third of the class attended with their families. One family in particular surprised Beverley by making the effort to attend, despite university not being something they had previously considered.
“It was like, wow, that’s something,” she says. “They really made the effort to go, and they got a lot out of it.”
She also remembers the children discovering that university does not necessarily mean moving away from home.
“It was just opening eyes, raising aspirations,” she says.
The impact of the new Gateshead centre is also being felt beyond school hours.
Bede pupils have been attending IntoUniversity’s after-school programmes, including children Beverley says she would not necessarily have expected to take part.
One pupil who had experienced significant challenges with school attendance began attending the centre. Another young person who had faced difficulties with how she was perceived and treated by other children has grown noticeably in confidence.
“She is blossoming,” says Beverley. “She’s become a monitor and she spoke at the opening and she’s forever coming in and saying, ‘Guess what I did?’”
For Beverley, this is what makes the partnership feel different.
“We’ve had a couple of families where they came to us as non-English speakers, and they’ve gone along, they’re getting a lot from it,” she says. “It kind of proves to me that the care is there and this isn’t just about ‘come along and do some work’. It’s about investing in people as people, as human beings, and developing the best for them.”
It can be difficult to measure the immediate impact of an experience that is designed to broaden a young person’s horizons.
Beverley is careful not to claim that every change she sees can be attributed to one programme. Bede already places a strong emphasis on resilience, confidence, cooperation and progress.
But she believes IntoUniversity adds something important.
“I can’t say yes for sure, definite change in how they are, but I can say I think it’s sowing seeds and is putting something into their minds that wasn’t there before.”
She knows from her own experience that those seeds can take years to grow.
She recalls a former pupil who had to move back to Jordan with her family. Years later, Beverley received an unexpected email from the student, who had become a doctor.
“She said, ‘I’ve been trying to look for you and find you. I just wanted to let you know that I’m a doctor now in Jordan.’”
The student remembered Beverley telling her that she could be strong, face anything and believe in herself.
“You never really know,” Beverley says. “The next few steps could be in a totally different direction. You don’t know where they’re going, but you’ve just lodged something.”
She sees IntoUniversity’s work in much the same way.
“They’re putting those seeds in and showing that there is a world out there that is big and bright and wonderful and you can be part of making it into something.”
The partnership has also given teachers an opportunity to see their pupils in a different setting.
Beverley says one of the most valuable things about working with IntoUniversity is having the chance to step back and watch children interact, collaborate and ask questions.
“When you’re watching somebody else delivering and they’re asking interesting questions about what they think and how they view things, and you’ve got the time and the ability to listen, then you learn so much more about them as people.”
That insight can then feed back into the classroom.
“Knowing your children and knowing what they’re like just enables you then to make your lessons better and make your relationships with them better.”
She was also reassured that the FOCUS Week remained connected to the curriculum, with pupils using their English and Maths skills in practical, meaningful ways.
“It was for a real reason,” she says. “And for me they were used in a better way because it was for a real reason.”
IntoUniversity has only been part of the Gateshead community for around a year, but Beverley’s experience shows what can happen when a new centre builds strong relationships with local schools and families from the outset.
From the first sessions delivered in school to pupils walking to the new centre, families attending graduations and young people discovering new interests and possibilities, the partnership is already creating connections across the community.
And Beverley has no hesitation in recommending IntoUniversity to other schools.
“I absolutely would recommend it wholeheartedly,” she says. “I really do rate the programme and the people who work there. All absolutely brilliant.”
For her, the partnership can be summed up in an image particularly close to home. Bede Community Primary has recently planted 1,500 trees.
“I think IntoUniversity is a little bit like that,” she says. “You’re putting those saplings in, giving them some roots, and now let’s see them grow.”
