Enriching the Complex Needs Learning Environment

Most of Bamboozle’s training sessions for schools happen on the ground in the classroom with the students and the staff team. We spend time working with a group of students – with staff on hand – and then we spend time with the staff team analysing sessions and looking at how the strategies and techniques of the Bamboozle Approach can be used in day-to-day practice.

As well as the behavioural and linguistic strategies of the Approach all of our sessions have a creative starting point and can be adapted to suit any area of the curriculum. We have done a variety of projects that have concentrated on the learning environment for students with complex needs. Areas of focus have included:

• Communication – recognising, exploring and nurturing the different modes of communication used by young children with complex needs.
• The physical environment – experimenting with different multi-sensory environments and exploring how they can be used to enrich the curriculum.
• Creativity and creative expression – exploring ways of enabling students to express their own creativity and produce their own creative work.
• Engagement and experiential learning – creating immersive learning experiences where children are fully involved and have the opportunity to make decisions, express themselves and explore their potential.
• Child-initiated and child-centred learning – ways of facilitating rich learning experiences that put the child at the centre of their own learning with space for exploration, communication and autonomy.

“The project has been great for opening ideas for staff and pupils on how we can make school life and learning work for our children. Giving the children time and standing back to watch their reactions, letting them lead. The discussions after our sessions were so helpful not only helping us understand and feel confident but also sharing things that I did not see or pick up on.”  Teaching Assistant – Lakeside School, Welwyn.

The Consultancy Model

Often the most effective way of delivering training is to spend time with groups of students and staff in the environment that they work in every day. Training sessions are practical and hands-on so that students get to experience a novel workshop session while staff get to try out different techniques in a supportive working environment. A typical training day for a project using the consultancy model looks like this:

• 8.00 – The Bamboozle team arrives to set up the workshop resources.
• 8.30 – Briefing – the Bamboozle team meets with the staff taking part in the day’s workshops to go through what will be happening and talk about the creative set-up and the strategies that will be focussed on.
• 9.30 – Session one – the Bamboozle team, in conjunction with the staff team, lead an hour-long workshop session with the students.
• 11.30 – Breakout for session one – after a break the Bamboozle team meets with the staff team for an hour to analyse the workshop and look at how techniques and strategies can be adapted for further use in day-to-day practice.
• 1.30 – Session two – as session one.
• 2.30 – Breakout for session two – as above.

This model allows us to work with two different groups of students and two staff teams on each day we spend in school. In some long term projects we work with only two groups and visit the school at regular intervals throughout the year for one day at a time. If we work with four groups we’ll visit the school for two days at a time – again at regular intervals throughout the year.

Each session provides the opportunity to explore a new creative technique – adapted for the needs of the group – along with the behavioural and linguistic strategies of the Bamboozle Approach.

“The sessions were the element which had the biggest impact – each session would change some area of my practice. After the first session I introduced ‘circle time’ (Nov). In January I introduced ‘circus physio’. Then next – Ritual, then a character and narrative. However, I still felt un-confident in telling a story. The final push came when I knew I was being observed I decided to make my own story up. It was surprisingly successful”. Teacher – Greenside School, Stevenage.

Available course formats

As well as the consultancy model described above we can also deliver training in a variety of ways tailored to your school’s needs:

• INSET days and twilight sessions
• Short term pilot projects
• Long term culture change projects
• Mini-residencies
• Large-scale residencies

There’s more detail about all of these courses in this website section.

Dates, venues and fees

Training programmes usually take place at your school by arrangement. Fees depend largely on the requirements for the training sessions which are different for every school – to discuss your school’s training needs please contact our Associate Director of Education & Training: nicole@bamboozletheatre.co.uk. 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 project focussed on enriching the complex needs learning environment.