Red Boot School in Birmingham

Red Boot School in Birmingham is an independent primary school for children aged 5-11 years, and their main focus is integrating therapy and education in one place and at one time. The school teaches children and adults with movement disorders certain strategies to gain greater control over their movement through Conductive Education. Red Boots applied for a community change fund to theatre and drama within the school.

The school had a free taster session with Open Theatre in January of 2025, who offer non-verbal physical theatre, involving play, simple props, music and movement. Following a successful taster session that had both children and staff smiling and laughing, the school wanted to organize more workshops with the aim of increasing the young people’s confidence, teamwork skills, as well as developing the non-verbal teaching skills of staff.

Through their community change project, Red Boots were able to fully fund four Open Theatre workshops.

“It has been brilliant, we have seen a really positive impact on both the children and our staff, using non-verbal techniques have meant no one person dominates the group and the more reserved or non-verbal children have been able to participate on an equal playing field. The staff commented on how confident the children have become, how much fun and enjoyment they have and how it has made them more open to trying new things”

“In particular – in addition to the outcomes above – we have seen the staff take on some of the non-verbal cues and techniques. They have witnessed how much can be accomplished by not talking and allowing the time for the children to response or allowing ‘space’. This has been really significant for them as a team and how they work with the children.”

Overall, Red Boots rated being involved in the community change project as 5 out of 5 stars and said it had been really successful in creating change.

“Thank you so much for supporting our project, we really appreciate the support”.