Royal Navy Submarine Museum

Education Strategy 1999-2002

introduction

policy

audiences

resources

roles and functions

types of provision

training

marketing

evaluation

1. Introduction

Various initiatives have been undertaken at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum (RNSM) over the past few years to develop an educational role. However at the moment there are no resource materials, special facilities or services available for either school parties or other educational group visits etc. The Museum now recognises the importance of developing a well planned, properly researched and resourced educational service. In July 1998 South Eastern Museum Education Unit were invited to carried out a preliminary study in order to provide some strategic guidance in developing the educational role of the Museum. SEMSEU key recommendations were as a follows:

· the Museum should seek to change its overall approach to exhibitions and interpretation in order to deliver a fully education experience to as wide an audience as possible but in particular children and families

· With specific reference to the schools market the report recommended as a first priority developing the science and history elements of the National Curriculum at the primary school level.

Educational Consultancy

The SEMSEU report enabled the Museum to design a brief for an educational consultancy. The consultancy was carried out between Oct 1998 and March 1999 by two museum education specialists (one with particular expertise in science and interactive learning).

The brief for the consultants was as follows:

Part One - Research & Evaluation

· Develop a database of local primary schools and their co-ordinators for science and history

· Devise a questionnaire and pilot with one school. Evaluate the exercise.

· Carry out several interviews with a sample group of teachers to establish what requirements they have academic and practical.

· Liase with the SEARCH education project Gosport - appraise their current operation. Discuss marketing and promotional issues.

Produce a report that:

a) summarises the results of the research process - indicates what kind of service we should be providing e.g. will education staff be needed classroom sessions? etc.

b) contains an action plan that details what further work is required to create a service for primary schools, in terms of resource material, facilities and organisation.

Part Two - Science and Submarines

· to examine the KS2 science themes of the National Curriculum and identify how these could be supported through museum based activities that link with the theme of submarines and science.

· identifies the key scientific and oceanographic themes that are part of the submarine story which the Museum should be seeking to exploit when the new gallery space becomes available.

· the consultant should also examine whether educational exhibits for schools need to be developed independently of exhibits designed to appeal to a wider range of visitors in main gallery situations.

2. Policy Statement

The following education policy statement was developed by the staff of the Museum during the course of the consultancy described above and was approved by the Trustees in February 2000.

The Trustees of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum recognise that education is a lifelong learning experience for everyone in the community and that the Museum has an important contribution to make to that process by maximising physical and intellectual access to its collections.

The Trustees believe that the Museum has an important role to play in enabling a greater understanding and appreciation of the following:

· Royal Navy Submarine Service - past and present

· Submarine technology and oceanography

· British Naval History

The Trustees are committed to establishing and resourcing a strategic plan for education that delivers a service for every age group and which encompasses both formal learning and informal learning opportunities.

3. Audiences

1998 SEMEU report whilst recognising that there was great potential for the Museum to develop an educational role for visitors from a broad range of groupings, it suggested concentrating effort on the primary school audience as the first phase of developing a wider service. The Education Strategy therefore has three distinct phases in terms of audience development.

Phase One

The consultancy has indicated that the Museum should concentrate on developing learning packages focused on Key Stage Two of the National Curriculum in the following areas:

· Science - Forces & Motion

· History - Britain since the 1930’s - specifically experiences of WWII

· Provision integrated into the above for Literacy and Numeracy work

Organising and planning in order to successfully establish the above service is the first aim of the educational strategy. An important part of this process will be establishing partnerships with local schools through outreach work in order to develop the whole package. There will also be benefits for the general visitor e.g. the submarine and science themed interactives will also be available to the general visitor for much of the time.

Phase Two

To establish the submarine and science theme throughout the Museum through (a) the new galleries and displays anticipated in the Museums capital development program and (b) new ways of interpreting the historic ships e.g. HMS Alliance, Holland I, X-24, LR3 etc.

Phase Three

To extend the service to schools and colleges by developing the following:

· Key Stage 3 to GCSE - science and history topics

· Research content and formats for collaborative projects (rather than one off visits) with the schools audiences above.

· Promoting the use of the collections and archives for use in A-Level and undergraduate history course work

Phase Four

The Museum’s archive, photographic archive and library are already used extensively by adult researchers engaged in commercial media and publishing work, academic research, personal interest and family history type research. Managing the current demand is challenging. However the Museum would nevertheless like to enhance existing modes of access by introducing on-line access to our databases within the gallery areas and by making more information available on the Internet.

4. Resources

The consultancy has underlined the necessity of the Museum making available sufficient resources to employ an Education Officer with professional training and experience in education and /or professional training and experience in museum education work.

As one of the four government funded Naval Museums RNSM intends to seek an increase in Grant-in-Aid from its sponsor department, the MoD in order to provide for a full-time permanent education officer. RNSM is alone among the four Naval Museums in not having yet established an education post. The Museum is confident that having invested in the research and planning work encompassed by the consultancy and in addition having secured additional space on site to service the needs of educational visits the funding requested will be awarded from financial year 2000/2001 onwards.

In addition to the cost of employing an education officer the Museum recognises that resources must be budgeted for in the following areas:

· production of educational print e.g. teachers packs

· casual educational support staff

· volunteer educational support staff expenses

· capital investment in interactive exhibits, replica artefacts

· maintenance costs for the above

· marketing costs

With respect to providing an on site service for schools to deliver packages for KS2 the consultancy research indicated that that income of roughly a £1.00 per child might be anticipated. However it would not be appropriate to seek an income while any of the proposed work is in the developmental stage. Furthermore the income derived from educational / school visits should be seen as a means to offset costs not cover them!

5. Roles and Functions within the Museum

The Education Officer will be responsible for co-ordinating the implementation of this strategy throughout the Museum. Below is a summary of core activities:

· work directly with audiences both on site and through outreach

· to recruit and train volunteers and/or freelancers to do the above

· research the collections and curricular themes

· to assist with marketing to the education audience

· assist with the wider interpretation of the Museum’s collections

· to organise/lead educational special events

6. Types of Provision

A detailed plan for provision of a service for Phase One of the strategy has been progressed by the consultancy work. For Phases Two and Three the detailed planning work will be carried out by the Education Officer.

Phase One

a. Science and submarines

Site visits by groups of KS2 primary school pupils. Learning goals will be the forces and motion topic, explored through interactive exhibits located within a discrete area for school groups but also open to the general visitor when not in use by groups. The interactive exhibits session would be linked to a guided tour of the submarine HMS Alliance where the scientific principles explored in the classroom can be linked to the design and construction of a real submarine.

b. History- Britain since the 1930s

Site visits by groups of KS2 primary school pupils. The session will entail experiencing the life of a submariner during W.W.II on board HMS Alliance linked to a classroom session that will incorporate handling collections and facsimile material from the archives.

Phase Two

Integrate the science and submarines theme into the principle gallery area as part of the construction of a new museum building anticipated in the capital re-development program. This will mean that the interactive learning experience will be more accessible to the general visitor. There will also be opportunities to increase the number of exhibits and the information to support them.

The interactive approach will also be crucial to the major redisplay of the rest of the collections which will be a result of the construction of the new museum building. The education officer will have a key role in the project management team for this development.

A major education theme that will be developed for the new galleries will be a types of materials trail linked to the history of submarine design as told in the two historic galleries e.g. coopered barrel section, riveted steel plate section, section of titanium plate.

Phase Three

The education officer will seek to develop educational activities for older school children e.g. KS3 to GCSE level and possibly A-Level. Given the known limitations on attracting to the site school groups at this level, the focus will be on establishing “bespoke” project based work with the schools. These special educational projects will mostly likely be targeted at local Gosport and Fareham schools and could incorporate a mix of curricular learning goals e.g. history, IT, science, art, design and technology.

Phase Four

Working in conjunction with the curatorial team and the IT manager, the Education Officer will seek to extend and enhance access to the collections by developing on-line facilities in the Museum’s exhibition galleries and also through participation in specialised education networks like Hampshire County Councils intranet and also through the world wide web.

Other projects associated with this phase could be the production of educational software based on the Museum archives and collections etc.

7. Training

To deliver Phase One of the education strategy as described above the Education officer will need to recruit additional staff to provide guiding and enabling services. These staff may be casual/freelance workers or volunteers, in either case they will need training in respect to the following:

· the curricular themes that they will be working with

· how to work effectively with school children

· health and safety

· first aid

· working with special needs groups

The management team and staff in general at the Museum will need to receive training in order to understand the Museums Education Strategy and the implications it has for each member of the Museum. This could take the form of a number of internal presentations carried out by the Education Officer and the Curator.

8. Marketing

SEMSEU report referred to above makes it clear that to successfully establish an education service, particularly the elements envisaged by Phase One, a major marketing effort will be required. Conventional forms of media e.g. brochures, leaflets, mailings can be targeted using appropriate databases and other marketing tools. However an important part of the marketing process will be the outreach element envisaged for Phase One, where the opportunity exists to build a bedrock of support through partnership with schools. The outreach will not only be a means of developing and evaluating the service but also of marketing it to other schools.

The market research carried out by the consultancy indicates that as expected schools within the Gosport, Fareham and Portsmouth areas are likely to be the core market. However there is strong evidence to indicate that schools from further afield will also visit provided we get the service right and work hard on the marketing.

Future marketing plans will need to reflect the objectives of Phase Two of the Strategy i.e. the full integration of educational interpretation (e.g. the submarine and science interactives) over the whole site. In so doing the Museum will capitalise on the national trend evident in our sector towards leisure activities that include education.

Marketing at RNSM is managed by the Business Services Manager. The Education Officer will work in partnership with the former in order to ensure that promoting the educational services is effective, but also to ensure that the education policy of the Museum is reflected in all aspects of the marketing off the Museum.

9. Evaluation

In principle the value of periodic evaluation is one that is an excepted part of the culture of RNSM and is applied to all staff and all services e.g. participation in the Hampshire Defence Heritage Benchmarking scheme, an appraisal scheme for all staff.

Phase One will necessarily incorporate front end evaluation through the use of pilots.

Similar mechanisms could be used to evaluate the work envisaged in the other phases.