Short-term Pilot Projects

A short term pilot project gives your school the opportunity to explore Bamboozle’s unique Approach to working with children and young people. Each pilot project is specifically designed to meet the needs of your school. Typically a pilot project takes place over three days and includes one training and planning day with school staff and the Bamboozle team, followed by two days of contact time with staff and students. All of Bamboozle’s work in education and training has a strong legacy element – everything that we cover has direct practical applications for day-to-day teaching and learning. All of our contact sessions offer experiential learning opportunities for both staff and students followed by in-depth discussion for staff on how principles can be applied to the classroom and how work can continue in future.

Typical project outline

1. Planning meeting – with school SLT and lead staff members – staff and students taking part in the pilot are identified.
2. Project scoping – Bamboozle puts together a proposal for submission and sign-off – the project is agreed and dates selected.
3. Training and planning day – on site at the school – Bamboozle spends a day with the staff team taking part in the pilot, together they plan the two contact days. This day includes an introduction to the principles of the Bamboozle Approach, it also provides an opportunity for the Bamboozle team to meet the children who will be taking part in the pilot.
4. Planning & gathering – there is usually a gap between the planning and contact days so that school staff can make any necessary preparations and Bamboozle can gather resources and create anything new that’s needed for the contact sessions.
5. Contact days – these are usually consecutive – the Bamboozle team comes to the school to provide the workshops for the children. The school staff team are fully involved whether as observers or active participants. There is a breakout session with staff following each workshop or at the end of the contact day to analyse what has happened and reflect on how the techniques and strategies used can be applied to general classroom practice.

Potential areas of focus

Each pilot project is specifically designed to meet the needs of your school. Sometimes schools are interested in working with a particular staff team or student cohort, sometimes the focus might be on the physical learning environment – her are some examples of pilot projects:

• Engaging children who are on the Autism Spectrum and who might be described as being hard-to-reach.
• Immersive learning experiences for children described as having profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD).
• Greater engagement – ways to hook children’s interest and sustain their engagement.
• Greater depth – interactive and immersive learning to enable children to expand their sphere of experience and explore their skills and abilities.
• Creativity across the curriculum – how to create engaging activities to enliven learning.
• Working with behaviour that challenges us – ways to adapt the teaching and learning environment to reduce the need for resistance.
• Multi-sensory environments – how they can be created and used to enrich teaching and learning.

What schools have said about our training courses

“The Bamboozle project has been a real “eye opener” for me. Being given the opportunity to observe, practise & then reflect has been really useful and has given me tools to use especially with our more challenging pupils. Using non-directive offers has definitely reduced the number of violent incidents with some children. I feel that having the chance or permission to just “be” with a child has been so rewarding. Some of the battles I had before are now non-existent. Our children are much calmer and happier and it has taught me approaches which support this. From September I will be helping to plan a Bamboozle session weekly and train staff who have not had the opportunity to be involved with the project so far. I am so looking forward to this.” Class Teacher (on an Autism focussed project), Lakeside School, Welwyn

“I have found the Bamboozle Approach has significantly changed my practice for the better. It has facilitated my belief that all children/learners learn better through a ‘play’ learning environment. I have now changed all my timetable work with Bamboozle themes – I try to narrate throughout the day, introduce characters and generally think much more about making all sessions more interesting and engaging by considering not only the resources but the whole environment, the way I present myself, how I talk, my expectations and what I observe.” Class Teacher (on a PMLD focussed project), Greenside School, Stevenage.

If you would like to find out more about Bamboozle’s education projects or would like to discuss how we can help your school please email Nicole Arkless, Associate Director of Education & Training: nicole@bamboozletheatre.co.uk.

Dates, venues and fees

Pilot projects usually take place at your school by arrangement. Project fees start at around £2950.00 but costs depend largely on requirements which are different for every school. Due to the COVID situation many schools are restricting the visitors who access their sites during the school day. We are however still visiting schools for training purposes when the children are not present. If you would like to explore possibilities for setting up a socially distanced training session at your school please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the Contact page. Alternatively you might like to investigate our Online Course offering.

Read about a pilot project looking at working with behaviour that challenges us.