User's guide
User Guide Contents
Click on the appropriate query below to go straight to that part of the page.
- Introduction and Project Background
- How do I Log On to the Schools4Museums. website?
- How do I check or change my museums details?
- How do I enter and edit information about my museum's School Education Services and activities?
- How can I find out which schools have used my museum?
- How can I find out about how schools use museums within a 30, 60 or 90 minute drive time of my location?
- How can I view maps of schools that use my services and those of nearby museums?
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1. Introduction and Project Background
Origins
Following the report Renaissance in the Regions in 2001, the government agreed to invest £70 million into museums in the regions to enable them to build capacity and develop new ways of working. Renaissance covers a range of activities, including the creation of Museum Hubs - a series of nine regional Hubs was established in England, with each Hub comprising of four or five museum services. The South East Museum Hub is one of the nine.
The South East Schools Database has been commissioned by South East Museum Hub, working in partnership with MLA South East (formerly SEMLAC) to measure the development of a comprehensive service to schools as part of the Education Programme Delivery Plan (EPDP) 2004-06. MLA South East is also supporting the development of a regional database as part of its DCMS/DFES Strategic Commissioning - a national education programme aimed at non-Hub museums which complements the work of the Hub. The aim of this programme is to decrease the numbers of non-participating schools, increase the capacity and skills to support education in museums and galleries and develop services which make it easier for schools to access museums and galleries. MLA South East and the South East Museum Hub aim to use the database (www.schools4museums.org) to identify levels of participation and, beyond the first year, to measure changes in those levels.
To find out more about MLA South East’s Strategic Commissioning Programme visit the website at http://www.mlasoutheast.org.uk/whatwedo/learning/culture
To find out more about the South East Museum Hub’s Education Programmes visit the Renaissance South East website at http://www.museumse.org.uk/learning/
Phase One
In 2004 sam was commissioned by the South East Museum Hub in partnership with SEMLAC (now MLA South East) to undertake a full audit of the activity between museums and schools throughout the region during the academic years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004.
Every registered (now known as accredited) museum was asked to complete a questionnaire about the services they provided and the schools that had used them between September 2002 and July 2004. The research only included South East schools which used museums in the region, and did not include schools from other parts of the UK or abroad. Information about the schools themselves was provided by the Department for Education and Skills. The findings from this first phase of activity were published in Spring 2006.
Phase Two
A second phase of data collection was undertaken during the summer and early autumn of 2006.
Again all of the registered/accredited museums in the South East were invited to return information about how schools had used their services during the two academic years (September 2004 – July 2006). A total of 26,000 records were collected (over twice as many as in Phase One). These records ranged from as few as one, from a small independent volunteer run museum, to nearly three thousand, from a major museum service.
Phase Three
The third phase of data collection was completed at the end of 2007. It collected information concerning the period September 2006 - July 2007.
The South East Schools Database now contains more than 50,000 records, which relate to schools that have used a museum in the South East region, of which 44,000 directly relate to schools located within the region.
2. How Do I Log On and Off of the Schools4Museums.org website?
To log-on:
1. Select the name of your museum from the drop down menu
2. Next enter the password you have been given
3. Click Go (If you would like your computer to remember your passsword click the Remember my login on this computer box)
If you cannot remember your password either:
Type your email address into the appropriate box and click go (note this may not work if you are new in post or have changed email addesses recently without updating the Schools4Museums system - see user guide for details)
or Telephone 01273 882112 and ask for assistance.
or email shaun.romain@sam-culture.com with your query.
We will try our best to resolve your query within 24 hours.
3. How do I check or change my museums details
To check or change your museum details:
1. Ensure that you are logged onto the system.
To check if you have logged on look at the top right of the page that you are currently in.
If it has the name of your museum next to the words Logout, then you are logged into the system.
2. Next select Museum Details from the left hand menu.
This will take you to the appropriate page.
3. This contains all of the museum fields present on the system.
4. The Service Descriptions will be updated in Spring 2008 to match those used nationally.
5. The Collections information was supplied by Cornucopia.
6. Key Stages Offered refers to the stages and subjects supported by your museum's education service.
7. Additional Museum Sites lets you record if your organisation works across a number of sites, rather than a single location.
This information is important if you would like to use the free Live Schools Booking Diary, as it allows you to allocate schools to different
parts of your site or buildings to undertake different activities.
8. To review or change the information on this page click on the Edit Button at the bottom of each section, make your changes and then click Save
4. How do I enter and edit information about my museum's Schools Education Services and activities?
There are a variety of different ways of adding your education activity information onto the schools4museums.org website.
The first is via the Live schools booking diary and the second through the Annual Data Collection Tool.
Live Schools Booking Diary
The Live schools booking diary has been designed to give museums and archives an online tool that is free and accessible from anywhere.
The booking diary is a seamless way of adding your information to the schools4museums website (automatically updating maps and reports) while at the same time effectively managing your education activities.
It is also designed to provide a means of recording Strategic Commissioning activity.
1. To use the Live schools booking diary click on the Select Month button at the top of the page.
2. Select the year and month for which you wish to add a booking, the calendar page below will automatically change to match your selection.
3. Click on the relevant date in the calendar, this will take you through to the next page.
4. This page shows all of the activity already entered for that date.
Select the Add an Activity choice to go through to the Add an Activity page.
If you wish to view what has been entered for days before or after the one you are currently viewing select Previous or Next Day options.
5. The Add an Activity page lets you select the school.
If you know the school's postcode then:
- Type in the first half of a school's postcode into the first box.
Wait a couple of seconds and a set of options for different schools will appear in the drop down menu under school name.
Click on the relevant school.
If you know the school's name and town then:
- Type in the school's name into the first box.
Add the name of the town (if you know it)
Wait a couple of seconds and a set of options for different schools will appear in the drop down menu under school name.
Click on the relevant school.
6. Once you have selected the school you go through to the bookings page.
Below is the categories that can be filled in.
If it says (essential field) after the category then data must be added to this box if you wish to save the booking, a warning will come up if you try and save
without this box containing information.
If it says (optional field) after the category then data does not need to be added to this box in order to save the booking.
- Date of Visit - pre selected
- From time to time - click on boxes to the right of these two fields, this will give you a selection of times to choose from 8am to 9.45pm, in 15 minute divisions (optional field)
- Teacher - enter the name of the teacher here (optional field)
- Student Party Number - (include only pupils/students, not the adult teachers and their assistants)
If you do not know the student party size enter 0 (essential field)
- Year Group - Please specify as pre-school or a year 1 - 13
If you do not know the year group enter 99 (essential field)
- Museum Resource - use this box if you wish to note a particular resource required for the session,
such as a loan box, specific objetc, projector, flipchart etc (optional field)
- Notes - make notes here (optional field)
- Service Provided - Please select one of the following as the service provided:
A. School visit to museum – not facilitated by museum staff
The museum provides interpretation material that relates to the age or key stage of the pupils visiting, or the subject(s) they are studying
B. School visit to museum – facilitated by museum staff
An accompanied session by a member of the museum’s staff
C. Staff visits to schools
Museum staff visit a school to provide specific support to the school’s curriculum
D. Loan of collections to schools
Loan of parts of the main collection, or the handling collection, is accompanied with supporting information that relates to the National Curriculum
E. Out of school hours learning / study support
A learning activity outside normal lessons which young people take part in voluntarily. In relation to museums, it is provision that relates to activity undertaken in partnership with a school only (so this would not include Cubs, Brownies, etc.). This formalised connection could include homework clubs and after school clubs rather than children being advised by their school to visit the museum individually for research purposes etc.
F. Work placements (14+)
Students that come on placement from a school, during school hours, as part of their work and careers development.
G. No Service
Use this option for Strategic Commissioning/HUB/project development related activity that involves museum or school staff CPD activity, research or resource creation.
- Strategic Strand - use this field only of you want to record Strategic Commissioning related activity, otherwise ignore (optional field)
- Key Stage - Years 1 & 2 = KS1Years 1 & 2 = KS1, Years 3 - 6 = KS2, Years 7 - 9 = KS3, Years 10 & 11 = KS4, Years 12 & 13 = KS5 (essential field)
(SN refers to Special Education Needs)
- Curriculum - Please select one of the subjects from the following list (essential field)
1) Science
2) Art and Design
3) Citizenship
4) Design and Technology
5) Geography
6) History
7) Leisure and Tourism
8) Other (including general visit or Strategic Strand activity and CPD activity etc)
9) Creativity
10) Thinking Skills
11) Literacy (incl English)
12) Numeracy (incl Mathematics)
7. Once you have completed the booking form click save.
If an essential field is missing an entry a warning will appear which describes which boxes need to be completed.
If after making a booking you wish to amend the details (for example the time or date of the visit has changed, or it has been cancelled) go to the Edit school bookings details option on the left hand menu.
Annual Data Collection Tool
Use this tool if you wish to add large amounts of information about how schools use your services (for example if you are adding data on a monthly, termly or annual basis).
This information will be used to automatically and instantly update the online maps and reports.
1. The entry form is driven by school postcodes.
2. Type in the first half of a school's postcode into the first box.
Wait a couple of seconds and a set of options for different schools will appear in the drop down menu under school name.
3. Click on the relevant school.
4. Next add the date dd/mm/yy (ie 01/03/08).
5. Then student party size (type 0 if unknown).
6. Select the service provided.
- A. School visit to museum – not facilitated by museum staff
The museum provides interpretation material that relates to the age or key stage of the pupils visiting, or the subject(s) they are studying
- B. School visit to museum – facilitated by museum staff
An accompanied session by a member of the museum’s staff
- C. Staff visits to schools
Museum staff visit a school to provide specific support to the school’s curriculum
- D. Loan of collections to schools
Loan of parts of the main collection, or the handling collection, is accompanied with supporting information that relates to the National Curriculum
- E. Out of school hours learning / study support
A learning activity outside normal lessons which young people take part in voluntarily. In relation to museums, it is provision that relates to activity undertaken in partnership with a school only (so this would not include Cubs, Brownies, etc.). This formalised connection could include homework clubs and after school clubs rather than children being advised by their school to visit the museum individually for research purposes etc.
- F. Work placements (14+)
Students that come on placement from a school, during school hours, as part of their work and careers development.
- G. No Service
Use this option for Strategic Commissioning/HUB/project development related activity that involves museum or school staff CPD activity, research or resource creation.
7. Add the keystage - Years 1 & 2 = KS1Years 1 & 2 = KS1, Years 3 - 6 = KS2, Years 7 - 9 = KS3, Years 10 & 11 = KS4, Years 12 & 13 = KS5 (essential field)
(SN refers to Special Education Needs)
8. Finally the curriculum area that the activity supported - Please select one of the subjects from the following list (essential field)
1) Science
2) Art and Design
3) Citizenship
4) Design and Technology
5) Geography
6) History
7) Leisure and Tourism
8) Other (including general visit or Strategic Strand activity and CPD activity etc)
9) Creativity
10) Thinking Skills
11) Literacy (incl English)
12) Numeracy (incl Mathematics)
9. If you have no more to add, click save at the bottom of the form.
10. If you have more to add click in the School Postcode box on the next line and repeat the process.
You cannot add more than 10 entries without first clicking save.
Tip1: To move quickly from one box to the next use the tab key on your keyboard.
Tip2: If you are entering a large amount of information and are unable to complete this process in a single sitting, when you return click on
the year and date at the bottom of the data entry form to see all of the entries for that term, entered to date.
The terms are represented as follows Year/1 = Autumn; Year/2 = Spring; Year/3 = Summer
5. How can I find out which schools have used my museum?
There are a variety of ways to find out which schools are using your services.
All of these are dependent on your museum or archive depositing information into the Schools4Museums website.
You can find out which schools are using you in the following ways:
By using the Schools who have used your service link on the left hand menu
The Schools who have used your service page lets you see all of the information held on the database.
There is an option to look at use by academic year starting in 2002, to look at all of the information together, since 2002 or to compare each year since 2002.
The latest information held is usually from the previous academic year to the one we are currently in.
The Schools who have used your service report had a variety of different options.
Either choose the academic year you wish to run a report about (ie 2005-2006)
or
Run a combined report which will show all of the information that Schools4Museums.org holds on your museum or archive by selecting All Years
or
Create a report that shows the pattern of use over the past five years by all schools that have used your education services at least once in this period by selecting Compare Year on Year.
Once you have selected an academic year report or an All Years report you will be presented with a list which will display up to ten of the schools found using this selection.
You can:
- Scroll through the tables contents by clicking on Next or Previous or view all of the list's contents by clicking on View All
- Print the contents of the entire table by clicking on Print
- Export the contents of the table as a file that can be opened by Excel
(this export contains more information than is visible in the list and is a very valuable source of advocacy/marketing information)
- Produce labels for all of the schools in the list by clicking on Labels
- Select any school by double clicking its name to view details that include its travel time from your location and the number of pupils in the school
6. How can I find out about how schools use museums within a 30, 60 or 90 minute drive time of my location?
The Schools and catchment area search has two distinct parts.
The first lets you build an area profile about the schools located within a specific drive time of your location.
The drive time is based upon actual times, not as part of a distance radius,
You can use a single search criteria or a combination of any of the four variables below.
Example:
If you wanted to locate a named school in Dover, then select the following:
- School Name: Average Junior School
- School Location: Dover
- LEA: Kent (this is optional if the town is known, if it is not it is a useful way of reducing the numbers of schools listed in the results)
- Postcode: (again this is optional if the town is known)
Then click Go
The list that is created lists all of the schools that fit the search criteria - their location, type and the Local Authority they are situated within.
In addition to this, the list shows how often the schools have used your services and how many SE museum services in total (including your own ones) they have used in the past 2 academic years.
Click on the school's name you wish to find out more about.
or
Click Print
or
Click Export to download the list as a file to view in Excel
or
Click Labels to produce printable labels of all of the schools listed in the report
The second part of this page lets you find details about a specific school.
If you would like to find a single school, if you do not have their address; or wish to find out about schools from more than 90 minutes away, use this search tool.
As with the Area Profile report you can use a single search criteria or a combination of any of the four variables above.
Example:
If you wanted to locate a named school in Dover, then select the following:
- School Name: Average Junior School
- School Location: Dover
- LEA: Kent (this is optional if the town is known, if it is not it is a useful way of reducing the numbers of schools listed in the results)
- Postcode: (again this is optional if the town is known)
Then click Go
The list that is created lists all of the schools that fit the search criteria - their location, type and the Local Authority they are situated within.
In addition to this, the list shows how often the schools have used your services and how many SE museum services in total (including your own ones) they have used in the past 2 academic years.
Click on the school's name you wish to find out more about.
or
Click Print
or
Click Export to download the list as a file to view in Excel
or
Click Labels to produce printable labels of all of the schools listed in the report
7. How can I view maps of schools that use my services and those of nearby museums?
This section allows each participating museum or archive to view a variety of different maps, which give a visual representation of:
- All of the schools using your services (derived from data provided about your museum or archive)
- All of the schools in the South East not using your services
- All of the schools present within the South East, centred around your location
- Schools defined by type (Primary, Middle, Secondary, Special and Independent)
All of the maps below relate directly to your museum only.
You can select schools by the following:
- Schools using your Museum
- Schools not using your Museum
- All School (Primary, Middle, Secondary, Special & Independent)
- Primary Schools
- Middle Schools
- Secondary Schools
- Special Schools
- Independent Schools
And by the academic year you wish to view a map about:
- 2003-2004
- 2004-2005
- 2005-2006
- 2006-2007
- 2007-2008
Select a map either by school type or whether they are currently using or not using your services.
Each map is interactive; you can zoom in and out and move the viewing point vertically and horizontally.
Click the pointer on a coloured flag to see the name of the school it represents.
Tip: To save the map make a screenshot (by pressing the following keys simultaneously Ctrl, Alt, Prnt Scrn) then paste into your document.
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