Annual Report on Poole Museum Learning Service

AGENDA ITEM 4

BOROUGH OF POOLE

POOLE SCHOOLS FORUM

14 DECEMBER 2016

ANNUAL REPORT ON POOLE MUSEUM LEARNING SERVICE

1. CONTENTS

Purpose of the report / 1
Background / 1-2
Current performance / 2-5
Feedback and evaluation / 5
Summary / 6
Contact / 6
Appendix A Table showing how many Poole schools used Poole Museum’s services between 2013 and 2016 / 7

1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

2.1.To update Schools Forum on school usage of Poole Museum’s Learning Service during 2015/2016.

2.2.To highlight the value of Poole Museum’s Learning Service for schools and recognise the impact of the funding cuts following the conversion of Poole Schools to academies.

1. BACKGROUND

3.1.Poole Museum Service runs a well-established Museum Learning Service for schools and is one of the best used in Southern England. This service has been supported and partially funded by Poole Schools for a number of years, which has enabled us to provide a high quality and relevant learning programme.

3.2.The service offers engagingworkshops and educational experiences for school pupils using museum resources and venues and the setting at Upton Country Park. The Museum Learning Service also provides resources,training, and advice for teachers.

3.3.The grant awarded previously by Poole Schools has enabled the Museum Learning Service to offer Poole Schools exceptional value, both in terms of preferential rates for school workshops, further discounts and free access to resources offered through a service level agreement(SLA) package.

3.4.The Museum Learning Service is dealing with the impact of two issues:

• First, the radical change to the history curriculum in 2014, meaning that over 90% of the museum workshop programme had to be redeveloped.
• Second, the reduction in the grant allocated through de-delegated funds due to academy conversion. This has caused a funding pressure. To date, this has been dealt with through a combination of savings and a modest increase in charges. However, the pressure will grow considerably next year and thus the significance of the actions needed to mitigate the pressure will be greater.

3.5.At Schools Forum in December 2015 a new funding model was proposed based on revisions to the SLA to create a subscription scheme. The success of this scheme relies on schools taking a subscription because they recognise the historic relationship they have with the museum whereby schools have made funding available through de-delegated budgets. This scheme was rolled out in April 2016 to academies.

1. CURRENT PERFORMANCE

4.1School Usage

4.1.1.In 2015/201618 Poole Primary and Special Schools used the service (see Appendix A). There are only three Poole Primary and Special Schools which have not used our services in the last three reporting years. However, all of these schools (Stanley Green First School, Canford Heath Junior School and Manorside School) have used our services already in this current year (2016/2017). This highlights the fact that schools have a long term relationship with the museum.

4.1.2.There were 7,178 individual school visits led by led by Poole Museum Service in 2015/2016. This figure reveals an increase on the number of visits in 2014/2015, demonstrating that despite the changes to the curriculum mentioned in 3.4 the museum service has adapted and remains relevant. This also underscores the importance of the Museum Service maintaining a team of professional staff who are able to keep abreast of changes and respond quickly.

4.1.3.Poole Museum Service continues to run a popular loans box service. This enables schools to borrow a selection of real museum artefacts for handling in the classroom.

4.1.4.Poole Museum Service continues to support schools through a range of activities and special projects including:

• Schools workshops and CPD around Sea Music by renowned artist Antony Caro
• Free schools workshops and activities around Lines of thought, an exhibition of exceptional drawings from the British Museum, including works by Michaelangelo, Picasso, Leonardo, Hockney and Moore
• Takeover Day programme to enable young people to takeover the running of Poole Museum
• Maths mastery and cross curricular project at Bearwood Primary to build a roundhouse, including supporting a funding application.
• Young Archaeologists Club for children between the age of 8 and 14 years old.

Pupils learning about local character Harry Paye through hands-on activities and drama

4.2.Benchmarking

4.2.1.Figure 1 sets out some key facts about museum learning programmes at other comparable institutions in the area. This indicates the scale of fees charged at the different institutions, whether or not professional staff are responsible for delivering school workshops and illustrates the nature of activities on offer.

Museum / Activity / Charge (two hour session or equivalent) / Staff
Ancient Technology Centre / Hands-on immersive activities, e.g. traditional crafts and skills / Whole charge class equivalent to c. £6 per head (but only run full day sessions at c. £12 per head) / Two out of three activities led by professional staff and one activity self-guided
Dorset County Museum / Tours and handling real artefacts / £4.50 per head / Activities led by paid officer and volunteers
Poole Museum / Hands-on immersive activities, e.g. cooking, traditional crafts and skills, use of real artefacts / Whole charge class equivalent to c. £5 per head (pay as you go); £2 per head (gold subscriber) / Activities led by professional staff with teaching qualifications and experience
Russell Cotes / Tours, talks and worksheet based activities / £5.50 per head / Activities led by paid officer and volunteers
Salisbury Museum / Discussion and worksheet activities; craft activities / £4 per head / Activities led by paid officer and volunteers
Wiltshire Museum / Tours and worksheet based activities; handling real artefacts / £4 per head / Activities led by paid officer and volunteers

Figure 1. Table to show key facts about museum learning services within the area.

4.2.2.Figure 1 shows that fees levied by Poole Museum Service are comparable with other museums and heritage offers. However, we always deliver workshops using professional staff and provide immersive experiences. This high quality service has been possible due to the funding relationship with Poole schools. This has contributed to the success of the service and has meant that for a modest level of funding Poole schools have enjoyed access to high quality, inspirational museum learning experiences not available at other museums.

4.2.3.However, because of the reduction of funding from Poole Schools it is likely that fees will have to be increased in order to maintain the current level of service and savings from staffing will need to be found. Mitigation of this sort is incompatible with the maintenance of the current service levels and therefore is likely to have an impact on either the quality of the service or its uptake.

4.3.Service Level Agreement

4.3.1.In 2015/2016seven Poole schools purchased a Museum service level agreement (Discovery Package).

4.3.2.There are a number of performance indicators in the service level agreement and the corresponding data for these has been set out below in section 6 of this report.

4.3.3.In response to the changing funding arrangement we have replaced the service level agreement with a simplified subscription scheme for academies (as detailed in the previous museum report to Schools Forum in 2015). Within this scheme maintained schools have been offered preferential and reduced rates. Next year the subscription scheme will be rolled out to all schools.

1. FEEDBACK AND EVALUATION

5.1.Evaluation for the period 2015/2016 indicates that teachers felt that 100% of their pupils enjoyed visiting or being visited by Poole Museum Service. Teacher comments included:

Both classes enjoyed the visit very much. It is difficult to pick out the most fun part as it was all brilliant. If I had to choose I would say the toy room as they were 'free' to try the toys and they were amazed by how much they liked the older style items.

We loved our day at Scaplens Court. The children have said things like 'we felt like we real Victorian children' and 'it was like a time machine.' I think their favourite aspect was Mrs Jelly & Miss Noble.

The children loved all of the practical activities, in particular climbing the rigging!

6.2. Evaluations indicate that the service is well received. However, Poole Museum Service is keen to reflect and develop, in order to ensure the offer is fresh and dynamic. Therefore, evaluation has been used to develop a rigorous programme of staff development and training.

6.3.There are a number of performance indicators set out in part 11 of the service level agreement and the data pertinent to those is reported in Figure 2.

Performance Indicator / Result / Source of data
Number of visits by the schools to the Museum / 187 / Museum booking records
Number of classroom workshops delivered to schools / 32 / Museum booking records
Satisfaction rating of schools expressed on evaluation questionnaires against the Every Child Matters outcome: Enjoy and Achieve / 100% / Taken from evaluation forms returned by teachers
Number of Complaints received / 0 / Borough of Poole feedback database – Lagan

Figure 2. SLA performance indicator data.

1. SUMMARY

7.1The Learning Service at Poole Museum has had a number of significant challenges to deal with, but has maintained an excellent service offering pupils rewarding and memorable learning experiences.

7.2Poole Museum run a professional service, which compares well against other comparable heritage learning offers in terms of the programme available and the scale of charges.

7.3The Service continues to maintain a dialogue with schools to ensure that the programmes in offer meet the changing needs of schools and this has included the introduction of a new, flexible subscription scheme from April 2016.

7.4The impact of the reduction in funding has been mitigated to date through a combination of absorbing the reduction and a modest increase in charges. Dealing with the future impact of funding cuts remains a challenge, but Poole Museum is committed to working with schools to find a solution.

8CONTACT

Lead Officer

Learning and Access Manager

Trudie Cole

, 01202 262623

Museum and Arts Manager

Michael Spender

, 01202 262609

Interim Strategic Director

Kevin McErlane

, 01202 633207

Appendix A

Table showing how many Poole primary and special schools used Poole

School Name / 2013/2014 / 2014/2015 / 2015/2016
Ad Astra Infant School /
Baden-Powell and St Peter’s CE VC Junior School / /
Bearwood Primary and Nursery School / / /
Bishop Aldhelm’s CE VA Primary School /
Branksome Heath Junior School / /
Broadstone First School / / /
Broadstone Middle School /
Canford Heath Infant School / /
Canford Heath Junior School / *
Courthill Infant School / / /
Hamworthy Park Junior / /
Haymoor Junior School / / / *
Heatherlands Primary School / / /
Hillbourne Primary School / / /
Lilliput CE VC Infant School / / /
Longfleet CE VC Primary School / / /
Longspee Special School /
Manorside Primary School / *
Merley First School / / /
Montacute Special School /
Oakdale Junior School /
Ocean Academy /
Old Town First School and Nursery / /
Springdale First School /
St Joseph’s RC VA Primary School / /
St Mary’s RC VA Primary School / /
Stanley Green Infant School / *
Sylvan First School / / /
Talbot Primary School / / /
Turlin Moor Community School / / /
Twin Sails Infant School and Nursery / / /
Winchelsea Special School /
Totals / 21 / 22 / 18

Museum’s servicesbetween 2013 and 2016

*At the time of writing these schools, which did not use our services in 2015/2016 have already used us this year (2016/2017).

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