In this financial year, PaddleBoat has continued to create opportunities for children and their families to engage with high-quality arts experiences - whether as audience members or as participants. In November we began rehearsals for our Co-Production of Elves & the Shoemaker with Exeter Northcott Theatre. For this we worked alongside a variety of local freelance artists, including actors, set designers and stage managers. In December the show first toured the 4 main Devon hospitals - Exeter, Barnstaple, Plymouth & Torbay. This was our first time bringing theatre into hospital settings. We worked along a company called Starlight, and performed to children and young people in their ward playrooms. Feedback from staff, young people & families was extremely positive and we hope to be able to do the same in December 2025. After we had toured to the hospitals, we then had a 10 day run at Exeter Barnfield Theatre, performing to 4291 audience members in the run up to Christmas. A review from the PRSD stated 'There's cosiness in the performance that's all set in the cobbler's shop, making snug corners places of mystery and friendship. The show is recommended for 3-7 year olds and the atmosphere is laid-back and welcoming. Most of all, The Elves and the Shoemaker adds sparkle and that's alluring, whether it's shoes or wonderfully warm Christmas shows.' In March 2025 we then toured Elves & the Shoemaker to 9 Devon schools, including Primary, SEMH & SEN. We reached 1810 young people. 2024-2025 saw us continue our National Lottery Heritage Funding 'Uncertain Tides' Project, which explored young people's experiences of the coast from Exmouth to Paignton. We ran weekly term time workshops at White Rock Primary, the Deaf Academy & Haytor View, exploring their local coastal & estuary environment. We worked closely with 145 diverse young people aged 6-16 in these schools. We also worked alongside a local sculptor (Brendan Rawlings) to realise 4 sculptures born from the work with young people in schools across the project. These sculptures were placed in Paignton, Dawlish, Topsham & Exmouth. We partnered with local environmental organisations to get permission for these statues, including Dawlish Against Plastic, Turn the Tide Festival & Sideshore CIC in Exmouth. On each sculpture is a QR code where the public can reach our website where we explain the project and link to a brand new game. This game was created by Stephen Tolfrey (based in Plymouth) and co-designed by students from White Rock Primary. Game users play as a lighthouse keeper, trying to repair his lighthouse light. At the same time, they learn facts about the coast and learn more about the project. Both the statues & the game were shared with families at a free family activity day in Exeter in May, before the statues were placed in their final position. From Easter 2025 we started rehearsals for the show 'Signals of the Sea'. This was a culmination of all the work from this project. It was based on a lighthouse and encouraged young people to think about the impact of the climate crisis on local communities & how we need to adapt & protect our coastlines. We worked alongside local freelance artists, including actors, musicians, set builders & stage managers, showcasing our commitment to providing opportunities to the local arts ecology. The show toured from June-July & reached 22 schools (Primary & SEN) and 2 arts venues. We reached 4288 young audience members across Devon. Feedback from all the schools was very positive - it was our largest schools' tour to date. None of the schoolchildren or their families had to pay anything to see this performance as it was entirely subsidised by the Heritage Fund and the schools. We hope to return to many of the schools next year to embed ourselves as their go-to cultural partner. We left each school with an environmental legacy (trees to plant, wildlife boxes) to encourage young people to actively participate in protecting their local environment. We ran two 'Theatre Weeks' in the Easter & Summer holidays 2025 - working with groups of 7-11 year olds during the holidays to create a brand new piece of theatre that was performed back to families in the Exeter Phoenix. Theatre Weeks are a fantastic way for young people to engage with theatre in the holidays and have the opportunity to perform on a professional stage. In June 2025 we also started a Paul Hamlyn Foundation & Youth Music Funded Project. We will be working closely with Millwater Special School & the Deaf Academy over the coming year to gauge the impact on arts based activities on young people's oracy & confidence. We chose those schools as for each young person, oracy will look entirely different: many of the young people use a mix of BSL, spoken English, AAC talkers & Makaton to communicate. We have run some introductory workshops & will work weekly with each school throughout the 2025-26 academic year. We will be working with an external evaluator to track the outcomes of the project and hope to share our findings with the wider schools & arts community in September term 2026. In September 2025 we began preparation for our Christmas show with the Exeter Northcott Theatre. We will be sharing our performance with schools, families and possibly hospitals again this Christmas.

Our stakeholders comprise three groups: theatres/arts industry professionals, schools and families. Theatres & arts organisations have supported us to provide theatre experiences for children and families - including the Exeter Phoenix, Exeter Northcott Theatre, Teignmouth Pavillions & Alibi. All these organisations have supported us to provide arts opportunities to young people in a variety of different spaces and set ups. All our arts organisations stakeholders consult with us on the design of different projects and provide us with feedback throughout. This helps us hone our work & ensure we keep it high quality. We are funded on a project basis. This financial year we were funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Arts Council England, Exeter City Council and a variety of small trust funds. We consult with each funding body's representatives regarding our projects and complete formal evaluations following their funding. Consultation with schools is more informal - we remain in constant contact with the teachers and leadership teams of the schools that we are working in to ensure that our work continues to serve the needs of the school and its students – we are gratified that so many teachers and schools continue to have us in at a time when schools budgets are so restricted. This year saw us run our largest schools tour to date. We worked in Willowbrook, Montgomery, Fremington, Ide, Ladysmith, Bovey Tracey, Marpool, Countess Wear & Clyst Heath Primaries for the first time, alongside returning to many schools that we have an existing relationship with. Our network of schools continues to grow, and we are always seeking opportunities to extend our reach. Consultation with families has continued through the form of post-show feedback forms/notes, whereby families could share views on shows, how we ran events and the marketing. We encourage young people to feedback on our work - asking young people about aspects of shows/workshops they have liked best, and what they would like to do more of. We are dedicated to making this as accessible as possible, and use a variety of tools, such as discussions in English/BSL, written surveys, physical movement, circling facial expressions & stick figures to show how they feel.

No remuneration was received for their role as director. None of the directors received dividends or a salary from the CIC in the financial year. In capacity as freelance artists, the co-directors were contracted by PaddleBoat throughout the year on various projects.

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration