Long-term Culture Change Projects

A long-term culture change project gives your school the opportunity to explore and analyse its learning environment and introduce lasting change to the teaching and learning opportunities it provides. We have ten years’ experience of working on long-term partnerships with schools to enrich the teaching and learning experience for 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. We work closely with staff on the ground and retain close ties with the Senior Leadership Team to ensure the smooth running of every project. Typically a project will last for a whole academic year and involve multiple visits from a Bamboozle team throughout the year.

Typical project outline

1. Phase one – discussion and planning – this phase usually involves multiple discussions and meetings with a school’s SLT to capture requirements and identify the project’s focus as well as decide who will take part. This generally takes place in the academic year before the project is scheduled to start.
2. Phase two – project scoping – Bamboozle takes all the school’s requirements and puts together a proposal to make the best use of time and resources and achieve maximum impact. Again this takes place towards the end of the academic year before the project starts.
3. Phase three – project kick-off and planning – once the project has been agreed the Bamboozle team meets with participating staff to run an initial training session and plan the contact sessions throughout the year. This takes place at the beginning of the project year.
4. Phase four – delivery – generally a Bamboozle team will visit the school at regular intervals throughout the year – the project might begin with an intensive week-long introductory programme followed by a series of workshop days with CPD sessions – or – the project might simply involve the workshop series. Schools often include an INSET day later on in the academic year so that learnings from the project can be shared with the wider school. All of the work throughout the year is painstakingly documented to provide reference material for on-going use. The documentation includes session plans, detailed information on strategies and detailed analysis of outcomes.
5. Phase five – review – at the end of the project Bamboozle conducts a survey with participating staff and holds an end of project review discussion with everyone involved. There is also an end of project review with the Senior Leadership team.
6. Phase six – reporting – all of the review data is collated and presented in a detailed end-of-project report which also includes all of the session reports from the year’s work. Bamboozle reviews the work done and makes recommendations for how it can continue in future. This document provides a comprehensive reference for all the work undertaken and can be used across the school.

Examples of long-term culture change projects

• Creativity Across the Curriculum – we spent two years working across all ages and cohorts of a school in Bedfordshire to introduce more creativity into teaching and learning – the project included classroom workshops, residency experiences, INSET days and a partnership with a local theatre where all pupils in the school took part in a public performance.
• Pupil Voice – we worked with a primary school in Luton focussing on communication in all its forms for children described as having profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) – the project included classroom workshops, residency experiences and INSET sessions.
• Less is More –  this project, at a secondary school in Luton, focussed on staff teams in the PMLD base and explored how multi-sensory environments could be used to enrich the teaching and learning experience. The project also looked at creative ways to engage students by getting back to basics and making sure that child-centred learning opportunities were part of everyday practice. The project included classroom workshops, INSET sessions and an end-of-project celebration.
• Child Initiated Learning for Children on the Autism Spectrum – we spent a year working with a number of staff teams at a school in Welwyn focussing on enriching the Autism teaching environment and exploring strategies to enable child-initiated learning. The project included classroom workshops and INSET sessions. Following the project the school was commended by the National Autistic Society and given Advanced Status Accreditation. We were commissioned by the school last year to provide a further long-term project – this time exploring how to engage children described has having severe learning difficulties (SLD) and deepen the learning experience for them.
• Three Year Creative Partnership – we have been working with a school in Stevenage for the past three years on an extended creative programme in the learning environments for PMLD, and SLD with Autism – the project has included residency experiences, classroom workshops and INSET sessions.

You can find out more detailed information on specific long-term culture change projects by visiting our Case Studies page.

What schools say about our long term projects

“The project has been a success on many levels:-

• It has given people license to be creative.
• It has made staff think differently and try other approaches.
• It has given time for reflection.
• Break-out sessions have allowed staff to talk through ideas.
• Groups have worked together.
• Really excellent CPD for staff. Good value for money – hands on training.
• Staff feel empowered.” 

Debbie Foolkes, Head Teacher, Woodlands School, Luton.

“From our point of view we were really wanting to look at impact from the start to make sure we were getting value for money, make sure our staff were picking up the approaches. As leaders, when we’ve done observations we’ve been looking for the Bamboozle Approaches across the observations because we don’t want it to be just in controlled environments; we want to see staff using the techniques of the Bamboozle Approach everywhere. We see things all the time. Staff will say, “Oh I learnt this in Bamboozle, I saw this in Bamboozle”. I’ve seen a lot of impact direct and indirect. I’m really pleased”.

Lynnette Johnson, Head Teacher, Lakeside School, Welwyn.

Dates, venues and fees

Long-term projects usually take place at your school by arrangement. 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.

Costs for long-term culture change projects tend to start at around £10,000 – each project is bespoke and the costs depend on the number of groups involved, the amount of contact sessions and whether INSETs or residency experiences are included. For more information or to discuss your requirements please get in touch with our education co-ordinator: nicole@bamboozletheatre.co.uk.

Read about a long-term culture change project in the primary complex needs learning environment.