‘Learning Experiences Outside The Classroom:’An analysis of planning and preparation

amongst Hawke’s Bay schools

Prepared for The National Aquarium of New Zealand by Cinta Research

November 2005

Research objectives

“To raise school attendance at the

National Aquarium via an

understanding of how Hawke’s Bay

schools’ plan and prepare for

‘Learning experiences outside the

classroom’”

Research objectives

More detailed objectives are to:

• Gather information about how schools plan LEOTC:

• When in the school year are outings planned and booked?

• How fixed or flexible is the LEOTC plan?

• Which staff members contribute towards the organisation of LEOTC?

• Evaluate the effectiveness of current communications and correspondence

with schools:

• Ascertain who sights correspondence from the National Aquarium

• How correspondence & information are distributed within schools

• Identify preferences for posted or emailed correspondence

Research objectives

• Determine why or why not the current National Aquarium LEOTC programmes

meet or do not meet schools’ requirements

• Substantiate why school attendance numbers are declining at the Aquarium via

an analysis of the reasons why schools do not attend each year / have yet to

make a visit:

• Price sensitivity and budget issues?

• Competing curriculum demands?

• Suitability of programmes?

• Anything else which emerges?

• Identify strategies to make the Aquarium a routine LEOTC destination

Sample & methodology

• 60 x 10 minute telephone surveys with Hawke’s Bay schools

• 10 x Central Hawke’s Bay, 20 x Napier City and 30 x Hastings’ District

• Mix of primary, full primary, intermediate and secondary schools

• Include schools with decile ratings 1-3, 4-7 and 8-10 to ensure broad

representation

• Interview the person with greatest responsibility for LEOTC planning: mainly

principals, senior teachers or LEOTC co-ordinators

• Respondents sourced from a database of Hawke’s Bay schools supplied by The

National Aquarium. Interviewers aimed to obtain a mix of those who had visited

and had not visited the Aquarium. (Overall, approximately 50% of population of

Hawke’s Bay schools sampled).

• Fieldwork October 2005

Presentation Structure

• Section 1 – Who took part in the survey?

• Section 2 – Planning for LEOTC

• Section 3 – Correspondence from the National Aquarium

• Section 4 – Does the National Aquarium meet the needs of schools’ LEOTC

requirements?

• Section 5 – Visiting patterns including barriers to visiting the National Aquarium

• Section 6 – Conclusions and recommendations

Who took part in the survey?

Statistics in this report may not equal 100% due to rounding to the nearest percent

School typeBase = All (60)

School type Frequency Percent

Primary 15 25%Full primary 40 67%Intermediate 1 2%Secondary 4 7%

Total 60 100%

Primary25%

Full primary67%

Intermediate2%

Secondary7%

LocationBase = All (60)

Location Frequency Percent

Hastings District 30 50%Napier City 20 33%Central Hawke's Bay 10 17%

Total 60 100%

Hastings District50%

Napier City33%

Central Hawke's Bay

17%

Decile ratingsBase = All (60)

37%40%

22%

2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Deciles 1-3 Deciles 4-7 Deciles 8-10 Undisclosed

Planning for LEOTC

Do you plan LEOTC with the teachers on an individual basis or do you plan LEOTC as a group?

Base = All (60)

18%

77%

5%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Individual basis Group Both

The majority of schools plan with teachers on a group basis

Once decided, is your school’s LEOTC plan fixed or is it flexible?

Base = All (60)

Fixed10%

Flexible90%

Great to see that 9 in 10 schools have a flexible LEOTC plan!

Therefore, if the National Aquarium offered a mid-year visit deal, would your school be able to factor this into

their LEOTC plan?Base = All (60)

May be23%

No3%

Yes73%

Three-quarters (73%) can factor a mid-year visit deal into their plan and another quarter (23%) say ‘may be,’ further reinforcing flexibility in schools’ LEOTC plans.

When do you book for your LEOTC outings?Base = All (60)

13%

5%

20%

43%

17%

2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

The yearprior

At thebeginning of

the year

Months inadvance

A term inadvance

Weeks inadvance

Don’t know

We see a range of responses here:•Approximately 1 in 5 (18%) schools are ‘early birds’ – planning the year prior or at the beginning of the year.•The majority (63%) plan several months or a term in advance.•About 1 in 6 (17%) are booking shortly before the visit, just weeks in advance.

Correspondence from the National Aquarium

Who sights the correspondence and letters from the National Aquarium? (unprompted, multiple response question)

Base = All (60)

3%

2%

2%

2%

3%

3%

3%

8%

12%

13%

67%

Don't know

Head of Curriculum

Science teacher

Head of Middle Form

Senior management / budget staff

Deputy Principal

All teachers

School secretary

LEOTC co-ordinator

Some teachers

Principal

Please indicate if the correspondence and letters from the National Aquarium are shared these ways with your staff?

Are there any other ways correspondence is shared?Base = All (60)

3%

2%

2%

5%

5%

42%

48%

63%

None of the above / not shared or distributed

Do not recall receiving any information fromNational Aquarium

Given to Intermediate school staff

Syndicate meetings

Given directly to LEOTC Co-ordinator

Distributed to each teacher with other generalcorrespondence

Displayed on the staff notice board

Staff Meeting

% answering ‘yes’

Effective methods to ensure information is shared and distributed to several staff members

Does all of your school teaching staff have their own individual email addresses?

Base = All (60)

No / Don't know52%

Yes, all of the them45%

Yes, some of them3%

What would be your preference and the most cost effective way for your school to receive correspondence from the

National Aquarium – paper correspondence posted to one person or emailed directly to all the relevant staff? Base =

All (60)

65%

28%

7%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Paper correspondenceposted to one person

Emailed to relevant staff Both

At this stage, posted correspondence is still the most effective method for schools to receive information, given that only 45% of staff are known to have their own email address and that posted correspondence is often displayed on staff notice boards and distributed at forums where staff meet face to face for discussion e.g. staff and syndicate meetings.

Does the National Aquariummeet the needs of your

school’s LEOTC requirements?

Please indicate with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you are satisfied with what the National Aquarium provides your school in the

following areas?Base = All (60)

30%

58%

78%

87%

70%

42%

22%

13%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Level of professionaldevelopment for

staff

Special projects, e.g.art competition,

science fair

Amount & frequencyof correspondence

Relevant curriculumcontent

Yes - satisfied No - not satisfied / Don't know

Opportunity for more!

Are more staff answering ‘don’t know’ rather than ‘not satisfied’?

Based on the feedback you have received from your teachers who have visited The National Aquarium, do you

believe the Aquarium meets the needs of your school’s LEOTC requirements?

Base = All (60)

Yes83%

Don't know12%

No3%

Somewhat2%

A positive result – with over 8 in 10 believing the Aquarium meets LEOTC requirements.

Please tell me about how the Aquarium meets the needs of your school’s LEOTC requirements?

Reasons why Aquarium meets school's LEOTC requirements Number ofBase = 50 mentions

Ties in well with school curriculum & teaching program 25Tour guides & staff do an excellent job & keep students' interest 12High interest from students / student feedback excellent 10Feedback from teachers is excellent 6Students can relate what they see with what they've learnt in school 6It's a local attraction 4Displays & exhibits are excellent / good online resources 4Safe environment to visit 3Excellent field trip 2Can meet needs of older and younger children 2We are an evironmentally conscious school so interested in Aquarium 1

Please tell me about how the Aquarium meets the needs of your school’s LEOTC requirements?

Reasons why Aquarium 'somewhat' meets school's LEOTC requirements Number ofBase = 1 mentions

No current teachers have done Aquarium visit - only past staff 1

Reasons why Aquarium 'does not' meet school's LEOTC requirements Number ofBase = 2 mentions

Doesn't fit the curriculum needs 1We concentrate on free outings e.g. beach 1

Visiting patterns including barriers to visiting

The National Aquarium

When did you last visit the National Aquarium? Would it be….? Base = All (60)

20%

30%

23%

12% 12%

3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

This year -2005

Last year -2004

Two yearsago - 2003

More thantwo years

ago

School hasnever visited

Unsure /cannot recall

•Half (50%) of the schools sampled have visited this year or last year.•35% have visited two years ago or prior to that.•One in eight (12%) have never visited the Aquarium.

What are the barriers or the reasons why your school does not visit every year / or has not visited at all?

(unprompted, multiple response question) Base = All (60)

7%

2%

2%

2%

2%

3%

3%

10%

12%

17%

18%

25%

40%

Don't know

No barriers - we do visit once a year

Co-ordinator doesn't always advise receipt of letter from Aquarium

Only spend a short time at Aquarium then have to fill rest of day

Don't have funding to visit Aquarium in addition to other outings / tooexpensive

Distance - too far to travel

Unaware of programmes available

Financial - have to raise funds to cover costs

Like to vary visits rather than repeating the same place

Do not see need to go every year / every 2 years more appropriate

The Aquarium does not always fit the topics we are learning / not relevant

We cannot fit an LEOTC outing for each of the 7 curriculum areas

Cost of transport

What could The National Aquarium do to make it a routine destination for your school to visit every year?

(unprompted, multiple response question) Base = All (60)

30%

2%

2%

2%

2%

2%

2%

3%

8%

12%

20%

25%

Don't know

Free for parents to attend with the group

Rotate the curriculum

Discounted sleepovers

Offer Te Reo

Nothing - distance is too far

More aggressive marketing

Lower transport costs

Personal pitch to the school

Nothing - don't see the need to visit every year

Lower the cost

More focussed programme

Conclusions and recommendations

Overall conclusion

Declining school attendance at the National Aquarium reflects financial and

curriculum restraints and does not reflect dissatisfactory experiences at the

Aquarium, inflexible planning or lack of

awareness of programmes.

Positive research findings

• LEOTC planning is flexible, not fixed. It is not unusual for outings to be booked relatively late, just a few weeks or a term in advance.

• Mid year deals offered by the Aquarium can be accommodated.

• Correspondence from the Aquarium gets into the right hands! It tends to be sighted by school principals, some teachers, the LEOTC Co-ordinator and school secretaries. Correspondence is shared widely amongst teachers, most commonly in staff meetings, on staff noticeboards and via communication distributed to individual teachers.

• High satisfaction levels with Aquarium visits – they do meet requirements

Relevant curriculum content (although some teachers require a more focussed programme)

Relates to classroom learning

Impressed with tour guides & staff

Excellent displays & exhibits

Positive feedback from students & staff

An annual destination?

• The National Aquarium is a destination of choice but it is ambitious to assume it is an annual choice for every Hawke’s Bay school. Once every two years is a more realistic goal.

• Financial constraints

• Schools required to fund raise to cover costs of LEOTC visits

• Competing demands with several LEOTC trips to fund

• Transport costs are expensive – may be a large proportion of overall cost

• Curriculum restraints

• Need to juggle LEOTC trips across seven curriculum areas, working on a rotational basis and letting each area ‘have its turn’

• Therefore, each curriculum area may not have an annual trip

• Some staff wish to vary destinations within each curriculum area – ‘to try something different’

• Staff indicate that they’d like to see more focussed programmes at the Aquarium

Raising school attendance: strategies to make the National Aquarium a routine LEOTC destination

Some ideas and suggestions…………….

• Reward the loyalty of schools who do wish to attend annually with discounts on continuous annual bookings or an allocation of free student or parent places.

• Aim to ensure every Hawke’s Bay primary / full primary school visits every 2nd year.

• Extend programme to Intermediate schools and other youth groups e.g. Girl Guides.

• Introduce spontaneous deals to entice those with flexible plans / late arrangers.

• Forge closer links with schools by taking the ‘National Aquarium’ brand outside the Aquarium.

• Offer more cost effective alternatives, e.g. off-site tours of marine life at beaches, rivers or reserves

• Bring tour guides & resources into classrooms.

• Publish school projects in Aquarium and school literature, correspondence & websites

• Sponsor school sports teams or school events

Raising school attendance: strategies to make the National Aquarium a routine LEOTC destination

Some ideas and suggestions…………….

• Liaise with LEOTC co-ordinators over programme content to ensure focussed and

relevant programmes are maintained

• Contribute towards transport costs, e.g. National Aquarium funded mini-bus, or

investigate if Aquarium can arrange transport at a more competitive rate than schools.

• Vary programme to keep LEOTC innovative, exciting & fresh without losing relevance

to curriculum. Inform schools about what is new at the Aquarium.

• Promotional tie-ins with other local LEOTC providers (to lower the overall cost of a

school selecting several LEOTC trips)

• Curriculum based competitions with prizes for schools, e.g. books, science equipment,

sports equipment.

Quality Check

Sample size of survey noted

All charts properly labelled

All charts properly checked

Spell-check completed

Cinta Research takes every care on every project to ensure accuracy. Prior to this presentation going out we have carried out the checklist on the right.Thank you.

For more information, please contact:

Fiona Hudson Louise Owen

Managing Director Research Analyst

Cinta Research Cinta Research

Tel: 06 875 8195 Tel: 06 878 8427

Mobile: 021 498 456 Mobile: 021 298 7594

Email: fiona@cinta.co.nz Email: research@cinta.co.nz

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