Dear Lisa,
You can benchmark your BVPI 170c (education visits -
pupils only)
figures using the central government websites
http://www.bvpi.gov.uk/pages/Index.asp
- they are lovely if you call
them and they will take you through creating
the tables you want, step
by step. They should be able to show
trends.
Also, you could try
http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk/performance/dataprovision.asp
Again
they are very helpful on the phone. This will enable you to
download
the whole countries 170c figures and rank yourself nationally
(Stockport
are 12th I think) against other councils.
Both of these are
for Authorities though, not specific museums, so you'd
need to know the
authorities which contained sites similar to your own.
I've found that the
people compiling Performance Indicators in
authorities are usually good about
sharing information one year end
figures have been published. They
should be able to tell you what their
individual museums have been
doing.
The DOCS publish monthly figures for the nationals at
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/Museums_galleries/monthly_visits_figures/
but these are just visitors, not schools.
In some cases in our museums we
have had more schools in, but the class
sizes are smaller, therefore figures
diminish. Also, schools are
closing and amalgamating due to reduced
numbers. Depending on which
school has the upper hand in this
situation, you may loose previous
custom. We have also realised that in
some circumstances e.g. Xmas
celebrations, we may need to ask small school
sizes if they will share
capacity so that more schools can be booked
in.
I am also including the results of a local survey that we did
looking
into factors affecting the number of visits a school may make in a
year.
You could try running a similar survey in your own
authority?
Our split is approx 60% outside the area and 40% inside.
The theory is
that, due to rising coach travel costs, schools feel that a
full day
trip is easier to fill if travel time is increased. If joint
visits
across 2 or more sites were promoted, it might increase
local
participation, though I'd have thought that the school population on
the
Isle may be relatively small? We have no hotel stock in Stockport
and
as far as I know, we have only had two residentially based trips
using
us (one from Dublin and one from Whitehaven). The Whitehaven
group
stayed in the local YMCA. Most primary schools who do trips
that
include overnight stays do 'outward bound' style activities where
the
group is contained after arrival. That said, a lot of schools are
now
dropping this type of activity due to teacher concerns about
liability
and possibly parent concerns after high profile coach
accidents. There
is quite a lot of info on Google on "cotton wool
kids"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article689316.ecehttp://www.generationyouthissues.org.uk/cotton_wool_kids_intro.htmhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/07/ncotton07.xml
Esther
Morrison
Research Officer
Staircase House
30 Market Place
Stockport
SK1 1ES
Tel: 0161 480 1564
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Lisa
Having been on the Ed side for fourteen years and an
archaeologist here for even longer(!), I know it depends a lot on what's on
offer. We're relatively close to the Liverpool and Manchester Museums but
nevertheless, we see schools from Blackpool, Burnley, Preston, Liverpool,
Manchester, W.Yorks, Staffs, Salop, as well as N.Wales & Wirral. Our
figures are currently 24.500 school children p.a. But it has been as low
as 19.000 (when coach seat-belts were intro), and as high as 26.000 in the early
days of Ofsted. It is mostly around the Nat Curr though and adding value for
groups. Teachers like 'making' activities, anything you can give them in terms
of information leaflets/packs that can be used back in the classroom, or before
the visit to support it and, cross-curricula dimensions. Some LEA's appear to be
far more stringent than others about teachers/organisers carrying out pre-visit
Risk Assessments, a good many only request and use ours! But this could be an
issue for you that your local LEA might help resolve, in providing an assessor?
I'm guessing like us it's KS:1 & 2 groups you see, so mixing subject
elements works (Geog/ Hist/Art), particularly if they can go back to base and
look at a local Roman site, with the tools you've given them. Do you workout a
timetable for the day with them? How many groups can your site 'absorb' at
one time? As we all know, most of the cost of a trip per child goes on
transport (+ acc and for you), but the offer of £1.50 - £2.50 goody bags helps
in our shop - these are booked in advance.
I've just sent someone else
these evaluation forms; I realise you may do all this and more of the above
already so apologies if this is a case of coals-to-newcastle ... But herewith in
the hope it assists ..
Regards,
Janet
Education Project Officer
www.grosvenormuseum.co.uk & UNISON Branch Secretary
Tel No. (01244) 402019 Fax 322045
www.unison.org.uk
