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← Blind Summit Education

2025-03-31-accounts

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Company number 07827214 Charity number 1150425

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Report and Financial Statements

for the year ended 31 March 2025

Breckman & Company Ltd Chartered Certified Accountants 49 South Molton Street London W1K 5LH

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Contents

Page
Reference and Administrative Details 1
Trustees' Report 2 - 13
Independent Examiner's Report 14
Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) 15 - 18
Balance Sheet 19
Notes to the Financial Statements 20 - 25

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Reference and Administrative Details

Constitution

The company is a private company limited by guarantee registered in EW - England and Wales, company number 07827214 and its governing document is its Memorandum and Articles of Association. The company is a registered charity, number 1150425.

Directors and trustees

The directors of the charitable company ("the charity") are its trustees for the purpose of charity law and throughout this report are collectively referred to as the trustees.

As set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association the board may appoint trustees provided that the prescribed maximum is not exceeded. Any member appointed shall retain office until the next Annual General Meeting where they will be eligible for re-election. Any person who is not a member of the company will not be eligible to hold office.

Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees are ongoing and incorporated indirectly into the regular trustees meetings.

The trustees throughout the year and since the year end, were:

Benedict Figgis Fiona Arnold Nicholas Bayly Sarah Simmons

Chief executive/day to day management

Mark Down, Artistic Director

Independent examiners

Breckman & Company Ltd, Chartered Certified Accountants, 49 South Molton Street, London W1K 5LH.

Bankers

Barclays Bank, 40 Wellington Road, St Johns Wood, London NW8 9SQ.

Registered office and operation address

62 Fentiman Road, London SW8 1LF.

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

The trustees present their annual report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025 which are also prepared to meet the requirements for a directors' report and accounts for Companies Act purposes.

The reference and administrative details set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).

Principal activity

The principal activity of the company was the art of drama and puppetry.

Structure, governance and management

Governing document

The charity is constituted as a company limited by guarantee and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 28 October 2011. There are currently four members, each of whom agrees to contribute £1 in the event of the charity being wound up.

Appointment of Trustees

As set out in the Articles of Association, the Board may at any time appoint any member of the company as a member of the Board, subject to a maximum of eight members. Any member so appointed retains his/her office until the next Annual General Meeting and is then eligible for re-election. At each Annual General Meeting one third of the members who have been longest in office retire. All retiring members are eligible for re-election subject to the limits of the terms of office set out in the Articles of Association.

The Trustees have agreed a range of skills and experience required to oversee the work of the charity, and regular skills' audits are carried out to ensure these are met. When recruiting, posts are always advertised through a number of sources, including places that are available at no cost to view to ensure accessibility.

Trustee induction and training

New Trustees are provided with a range of background documents to familiarise themselves with the organisation, including the Memorandum and Articles of Associations, five year strategy, financial performance and stakeholder obligations. They are also provided with charity commission guidance on the responsibility of Trustees and an annual board training budget is provided for those who feel they might benefit from further expertise.

Trustees meet quarterly to make important decisions about the company, approve the annual business plan and budget, monitor quarterly management accounts and cash flow, and advise the management on strategic issues. Three members are required for the meeting to be quorate.

They delegate daily running of the organisation to Artistic Director Mark Down who attends all Trustee meetings and provides reports as required. A representative from the organisation's main stakeholder, Arts Council England, is also invited to all meetings as an observer and aims to attend at least one meeting per year.

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Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

Risk management

Risks are reviewed by Trustees regularly and systems, procedures and policies are in place to mitigate these risks as far as possible.

Objectives and activities for the public benefit

In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have considered the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit, including the guidance 'public benefit: running a charity (PB2).

Our goal

Blind Summit is a London based, internationally touring, producer of puppet based theatre under the vision of Artistic Director, Mark Down, who is one of the world's leading puppeteers.

Blind Summit's aim is to make puppetry history .

We are puppet innovators: our mission is to expand the definition of a puppet. We ask the question, "What is puppetry for?"

We do that by producing ground-breaking new writing for theatre that often puts puppetry at the centre of the story. We nurture the puppeteers and makers of tomorrow, and develop new audiences for puppetry.

Our backstory

For 27 years, since 1997, Blind Summit have made shows which have consistently subverted people's expectations of puppetry. We have nurtured puppetry talent who have gone on to perform and set up new puppet companies around the globe. We have built new audiences for puppetry by creating outstanding productions that tour the world. We have helped build new audiences for theatre, opera and dance by collaborating with world-class artists.

'Blind Summit are the UK's puppet masters, a company whose shows, such as Low Life and the brilliant The Table, have proved that puppetry doesn't have to come either with apologies or strings attached.' Lyn Gardner, The Guardian.

To achieve its mission, Blind Summit has four main strands of activity:

Generating new work Nurturing talent Touring worldwide to reach audiences Building great partnerships

Generating highly original, new work

Over its 50 productions, Blind Summit's Artistic Director Mark Down has developed his own process which uses the unique challenges of working with puppets to make extraordinary shows. We develop new ideas over long periods, through extensive research, writing, puppet making and workshopping, to discover new kinds of puppets and new ways of presenting them.

Activity 1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025

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Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

This year we continued to invest in experimental new work and break new ground for adult puppetry. We, toured a show to a large venue in Edinburgh and London to reach as wide an audience as possible. We worked with a commercial booking agent and developing assets to try and reach worldwide audiences and achieve higher profile for our tours. We developed and opened two new shows, one completely homegrown and the other a collaboration in which we were the artistic leader.

We developed two new cohorts of artists in making these shows,who brought terrific new energy into the company and a new profile for our work in our post Covid, post arts council funded world.

At the end of the year we start to work on ideas for our next show. Having worked with words on most of our recent projects we are going to make a new show that uses no spoken words at all, entirely accompanied by music.

Creative Activity included:

In August 2024 we took the Sex Lives of Puppets to The Pleasance Edinburgh for a 4 week run in Pleasance Beyond. The venue has 330 seats and we have played there twice before with Citizen Puppet and The Table. Our ambition was to sell out the show, to reach new audiences, and to win international bookings.

We edited the show from 90 minutes, plus and interval, down to 60 minutes without an interval. To do this we took out three scenes including the shadow puppetry section. We also recast one of the roles meaning that the cast became even 2 male and 2 female performers, and that Clive was voiced by a woman.

We began working with Glynis Henderson Productions as international booking agent for this show and they gave us advice and guidance during the run and brought people in to see it.

The show won great reviews and reactions from audiences. It sold above the 40% capacity target. The “cut down” version of the show was not as successful as the full length version but still garnered interest from bookers. By the end of the year GHP had solid interest for a two week tour of Denmark in November 2025 and 6 weeks in the USA in 2026. 3 of the cast members are committed to the tours leaving us to find one more.

We worked with Gingerbread PR agency who got the show reviewed by all the major papers including the New York Times.

Following on immediately from the Fringe we revived The Sex Lives Of Puppets in its original form and venue for four weeks. Though slow to get going by the end of the run it sold out and it enjoyed the same rapturous response that it received the first time.

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Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

What To Do In A Puppet Emergency is a new one man show born out of a talk that Mark Down developed for the book launch. It is like a one man version of The Table. A meta-theatrical piece in which Mark plays a “Puppet Health and Safety Officer” and explains how to do puppetry in terms of “life saving”. The conceit means that he can explain puppetry technique in layman’s terms, giving the audience a peak backstage into “how it’s done”, while also giving them a live demonstration of it being done. The result is satisfyingly funny and informative and does for the puppeteer what The Table did for the puppet.

Mark premiered the show at Fidena Festival in Bochum in a cabaret bar setting to about 150 people at 10.30pm. It was a huge success with this festival audience and immediately won interest from bookers in Porto, Lubeck, Fadenschein, Jerusalem, and Slovenia.

The show is easy to deliver needing only one man and one puppet, being performable in multiple settings, and accessible to puppetry and non-puppetry audiences. At the moment it is 30 minutes long but could be developed into an hour in the future.

He performed at community centres in Weymouth, and in Islington, at a salon evening in Hampstead and 3 shows for the opening of a new theatre Kolk17 in Lubeck in March.

In February we premiered The Law Of Gravity at Manipulate Festival in theTraverse Theatre in Edinburgh. We subsequently toured to Dundee Rep and Royal Scottish Concert Hall in Glasgow. Three very different venues acoustically, visually and atmospherically.

This highly experiential piece, a “concert with puppetry” devised and directed by Mark Down and Jonathan Moreton, used the concert format of two pieces of music - Philip Glass’s 3rd Symphony and Schoeberg’s Verklarte Nacht.

The show was made over a year with 5 separate weeks of rehearsal. We spent 3 days R+D with the Scottish Ensemble, and 4 days technical rehearsal with them.

Charlina Lucas co-designed costumes and puppets with Mark Down, as well as assistant directing and stage managing with excellent results creatively. We repurposed the “Peter” puppet from Peter and the Wolf into a spaceman ballerina as the central character of the show and created some new props.

The show was new a departure from Blind Summit’s past work being wordless and perhaps more serious than usual. It was well received by audiences and critics who described it as “a bold rollercoaster ride” (★★★★ The Scotsman). The collaboration was creatively exhilarating for everyone who took part.

Nurturing talent

We develop the skills of emerging artists through a comprehensive training programme. Through outreach work we introduce people to puppetry for the first time. With open auditions we look for undiscovered, raw puppetry talent, to give opportunities to artists at the beginning of their careers. With workshops and our Associate Artist programme we develop excellence in puppetry which supplies our own work and the wider industry.

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Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

In 2024-25 we focussed on developing a new cohort of puppeteers who would help us develop our new projects. We also began a new workshop programme in collaboration with puppet maker Russell Dean from Strangeface.

In 2024-25 the programme included:

Training and employing a new cohort of extreme puppeteers around Law Of Gravity

We invited 10 performers to work with us on a trial basis on various R+D workshops on The Law of Gravity that we were running. This gave us creative man power for our devising process and gave them paid opportunities to work with us, to develop their puppetry skills and to show us their abilities. Using this way of working allowed us to develop together a cohort of puppeteers alongside developing the work. This had two advantages, firstly we put together an ensemble cast organically, by consensus with the puppeteers, over time, and secondly when puppeteers became unavailable for any reason we were able to draw on a reserve team who were ready to jump in at short notice.

Participation workshops teaching puppetry at Claremont Project and Weymouth Catholic Community Centre

We were invited to these two community participatory programmes. While a long way out of our comfort zone and theirs, the “meeting over a puppet” is a valuable life experience for everyone involved giving each of us the opportunity to see our lives from completely different perspectives. The events were joyfully received.

New Workshop Programme

In March 2025 we ran a new workshop in collaboration with Russell Desan of Strangeface who worked with us on the puppets for The Sex Lives Of Puppets. This week long workshop involved making a puppet in two days led by Russell, and then learning to bring it to life in 3 days, and presenting a short show at on the morning of the 6th day.

The workshop was attended by 10 people. We also offered a subsidised place to a long term Blind Summit artist..

The feedback was very positive. Many people saying it exceeded their expectations. As a result we are going to run workshops twice a year in the hope that they will build reputation and grow new demand.

Touring worldwide to reach audiences

We tour to make work, test new shows and reach audiences. International touring is going to be increasingly important to our work. We promote our work so that it is experienced by as many people as possible across the UK, Europe and the world. We put puppetry in as many different places as we can: in theatres, opera houses, in the open air, on the internet and on TV.

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Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

In 2024-25

What to do in a Puppet Emergency in Bochum

Having asked for The Table for which the cast was not available, we offered Fidena this new show “on spec”. They booked it for a minimal fee and covered flights and accommodation. From this 6 more international bookings followed.

A new production of Low Life in Vilnius, Lithuania

The Vilnius Puppet Theatre approached us wanting to stage their own production of Low Life to be directed by Augis Slavinkas who puppets the boy in Madam Butterfly at the LNOBT and Vienna Staatsoper. It has been a dream of his to restage the show there. We have done a royalties only deal and offered to support Augis through the production. This will be the second of Blind Summit’s original scripts to be reproduced.

Madam Butterfly at the Met, LNOBT, Vienna Staatsoper

Madam Butterfly was revived in 2023 at the Metropolitan Opera, at the Vienna Staatsoper and at LNOBT in Vilnius. The puppeteers were all trained by Blind Summit.

Meet Fred

Meet Fred, created in collaboration with Hijinx Theatre, continues to tour nationally and internationally. In September 2024 a new production was mounted in Seoul Korea as part of an access season produced by the Wooran Foundation. Our Artistic Director, Mark Down, went out for a week to run a workshop and assist with casting.

The Spaceman

The rights for The Spaceman were transferred to a new publishing house in Germany. There were no sales in 2023-24 due to the changeover but there are promising leads for next year.

Building great partnerships

Structuring partnerships in the right way means that Blind Summit can achieve "A lot for a little". Blind Summit's process is costly in research and development time. Smart partnering enables us to apply our process to make work in a variety of venues and platforms and reach new and wider audiences for our work.

In 2023-24 we partnered with:

Fidena Festival

The Table played at Fidena Festival in 2012. In 2024 Fidena Festival took a chance and booked What to do in a Puppet Emergency on spec, when it was only the germ of an idea. From the performance at the festival 6 more international festival bookings followed for 2025/26.

The Scottish Ensemble

The Scottish Ensemble approached Blind Summit to direct them in a music-puppetry collaboration experiment. The relationship was very profitable creatively, leading to a truly experimental partnership and production. We are now seeking more opportunities to develop and perform the piece.

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Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

The Pleasance

Blind Summit has been presenting work in the Fringe Festival at the Pleasance since 1997. Over that period we have develop an excellent working relationship with the Artistic Director Anthony Alderson. We presented The Sex Lives of Puppets there and featured in the opening Gala.

Manipulate Festival

The Law Of Gravity premiered as the opening show of the Manipulate Festival at The Traverse Theatre. This programming gave this short tour a high profile and meant that the show was reviewed by The Scotsman and several other local publications that would probably not have covered the show if it had just been part of the Scottish Ensemble musical programme. Bringing the Scottish Ensemble to the Manipulate was also adventurous and unusual.

Southwark Playhouse

The Sex Lives Of Puppets returned to “The Little” at Southwark Playhouse where it premiered in January. This felt like a “homecoming” and the show was really well received by audiences, the theatre and supporters of the theatre.

Glynis Henderson Productions

After visiting the show GHP agreed to represent The Sex Lives Of Puppets as international tour bookers worldwide. With their eclectic portfolio of theatre shows they feel like a really good partners for Blind Summit and for this show in particular. With their guidance we developed marketing assets for the show and at the time of writing they have booked for us a 2 week tour in Denmark and 6 week tour in the USA.

Mark Price from Amanda Howard Agency

Who represents our work to protect our Intellectual property. He negotiated the licensing of Low Life to Vilnius Puppet Theatre.

We have complied with our duty under section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the Trustees have considered how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

Organisational Development

Blind Summit’s core activities were managed by the Artistic Director working one day a week and an freelance assistant administrator working 2 days a week, assisted by the part time administrative support of a Bookkeeper, Accountant, and Agents.

This new light structure is working increasingly well, putting the emphasis on delivering creative work, keeping the management infrastructure responsive to the needs of the artistic output.

Our remote relationship with Juliette Stark at GHP who is leading on booking Sex Lives Of Puppets has continued to develop leading to booking two tours for the show, having most of the cast available, and leading to a profit forecast for next year’s budget.

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Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Trustees’ Report

We continue to operate without a physical base, working remotely and on tour with our collection of puppets and props stored in an accessible storage facility just outside London. The company is run on Google Workspace which is provided free of charge to charities and enables excellent communication and access to our assets. We are migrating the website to Google sites next year to make it even more integrated into the office ecosystem.

Our new board appointed in March 2023 have been active and helpful, attending shows and enthusiastically supporting the work.

Financial Review

Income

Total income for the company in this financial year was £122,761.

£70,844 of this was project income from our charitable activities. Of this £70,844, the largest portion, was from ticket sales and fees for performances, £4,600 came from educational workshops and £44,239 was Theatre Tax Relief on the production costs of The Sex Lives Of Puppets .

Voluntary income was £3,271. This was made up of £2,900 completion payment of the Arts Council project grant for The Sex Lives of Puppets , and £371 in private donations.

We received £4,407 in bank interest on our reserves.

Expenditure

Total expenditure for the year was £143,307.

This was made up of £55,019 on freelance fees, £106,998 on Physical Production costs, developing new work and education projects, £5,795 on marketing, and £35,308 on support and governance costs.

The year’s activities were divided between touring The Sex Lives of Puppets , making two new shows ( The Law of Gravity and What to do in a Puppet Emergency ) and developing a new educational workshop programme. Our income was £2,240 less than originally budgeted (£125,001). We earned less than expected in ticket revenue for Sex Lives (-£44,376), despite meeting anticipated box office numbers. This was evened out however by receiving higher than budgeted return from Theatre Tax Relief (+£38,864). We earned £2,700 from performances of What To Do In A Puppet Emergenc y which was not anticipated at the beginning of the year. We also received the final Arts Council grant payment (£2,900) and bank interest (£4,407) that had not been anticipated in the budget.

Our expenditure was also £36,270 less than budgeted. Savings were made in core costs (£59,749 versus £68,678 budgeted) due to the reduced core staffing and overheads, and in touring Sex Lives to Edinburgh and London (£52,016 versus £79,091 budgeted) due to excellent fiscal management of the tour and touring costs. There was an overspend on The Law of Gravity of £2,882 (£17,882 versus £15,000 budgeted) which concurs with our priority of investing in creative opportunities.

The net result is a reduced year end deficit of £20,546, against the budgeted £54,635.

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Blind Summit Education

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Trustees’ Report

Reserves policy

The policy agreed by Trustees is that the Charity should hold unrestricted general funds in the region of six months of budgeted overheads for use in times of potential need. Where additional unrestricted funds become available, they shall be designated by the Trustees for use for specific purposes relating to the objectives of the Charity. This policy is reviewed on an annual basis.

At 31 March 2025, unrestricted funds amounted to £208,587, maintained as unrestricted general funds in line with the policy. The additional funds, currently standing at £208,587 at year end, are largely resulting from the unexpected success of The Table on tour between 2012 and 2014 and from the new flexible administrative model the company has adopted since 2018. These funds have been designated by the Trustees into two Designated funds: an Organisational Development Fund £20,000 (to support the company continuing to develop a new business model from 2018) and a Generator Fund £188,398 (to support the creation of new work).

Related Parties

There were no related party transactions during the year.

Future plans and activities

The organisation's strategic goals for the next five years continue to be:

Planned activity for the year ahead includes: (These plans mark the situation on the 31 March 2025)

Generating new work

A Puppet Rite of Spring (working title) - Blind Summit/ London Mime Festival/ Little Angel A puppet mime/ physical theatre show set to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. A puppet conductor begins the music, then pushes away his podium and begins to walk. He goes on a long journey through fertile landscapes made of cardboard and paper, over his puppeteers, to face internal and external battles, falling in love, falling over, falling apart…

New Title development

Blind Summit’s new working model is to develop scripts in collaboration with co-writers. Following a brief period of Research and Development of the core idea, the writers go away and write the script based on what they learn in the room.

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Trustees’ Report

Continued development of What To Do In A Puppet Emergency

While touring the show this year Mark Down will continue to write and develop the show. At the moment the show is 30 minutes long but we believe that it has the potential to run at an hour.

Nurturing talent

A Practical Guide to Puppetry

We will continue to promote Mark Down’s book that captures Blind Summit’s unique puppetry technique with talks and public events to help it reach the puppeteers of tomorrow.

Open Auditions

We will conduct 2 weeks of open auditions and call backs in May 2024 to refresh our cohort of puppeteers.

Training workshops

Following the success of pilot workshop in March we will roll out a workshop season twice a year consisting of two workshops: The Extreme Puppetry Toolkit (introductory) and Advanced Extreme Puppetry. The next ones will be in September and October.

Touring Workshops with What To Do In A Puppet Emergency

Mark Down will lead workshops to accompany each of the performances of Puppet Emergency in Slovenia, Jerusalem, Porto.

Open Access Advice

We will continue to programme open access advice and workshops.

Mentoring

We will continue to offer mentoring advice and seek diverse artists to nurture their talent hopefully to become future puppeteers.

Touring worldwide to reach audiences

“The Sex lives of Puppets” in Denmark and USA

Glynis Henderson Productions have organised a two week tour of Denmark in November 2025 and 6 week tour of USA in January-March 2026. Together these tours will go a way to earning back a good deal of the costs of making the show.

Touring “What to do in a Puppet Emergency”

Following the premiere at Fidena Festival in Bochum What to do in a Puppet Emergency will tour to Moment Festival in Maribor Slovenia, Train Puppet Festival in Jerusalem, FIMP in Porto, Weitblick Festival in Fadenshein in 2025.

Supporting “Meet Fred”

We will continue to support this highly successful show as it tours the UK and worldwide in 2024-25. We helped organise a Japan tour with our contacts from the Shinokatagawa Festival where The Table went last year.

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Trustees’ Report

Reviving “Low Life” in LIthuania

Vilnius Puppetry Theatre will produce their own version of Low Life designed and directed by Augis Slavinkas who was in Low Life for a tour of China in 2008. It will premiere in 2026.

Looking for opportunities to tour Law Of Gravity

We are continuing to work with Scottish Ensemble to seek further opportunities to present The Law Of Gravity. There is quite a lot of interest in the show.

Building great partnerships

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

We continue to work with Professor Christopher Bonell, an author on the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, to market and enrich the performances of The Sex Lives of Puppets .

The Scottish Ensemble

We will continue to work with The Scottish Ensemble to develop and tour The Law Of Gravity. Our hope is that each iteration of the show will allow us to develop it further.

New Artistic Partnerships

Mark Down is continuing to develop new artistic partnerships, already working with Chris Larner, Hannah Kumari, Ben Keaton, Adrian Jackson as co-writers and seeking more new creative relationships.

London Mime

London Mime is a new iteration of LIMF with who we very successfully collaborated many times in the past. We are currently talking to them about helping to promote A Puppet Rite Of Spring.

International Partners for A Puppet Rite of Spring

A Puppet Rite of Spring will be wordless and there should have an appeal to non English speaking partners to develop the show. We will approach all our past presenters of The Table to put together a cohort of producing partners, and potentially a residency to develop the show.

Working with David Pountney at Grange Opera

We will design the puppetry for “Krishna”, an as yet unstaged John Tavener opera to be directed by David Pountney at Grange Opera in 2026 season. Our long relationship with D. Pountney make this an exception to our “no puppetry provision” rule.

Stanford University and katapult Theatre Denmark

These two institutions have taken on the responsibility for managing their end for the tours of Denmark and the USA. Their crucial roles have been instrumental in making the tours possible.

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Trustees’ Report

Organisationally

Funding

We will apply for Project funding from the Arts Council to support the development of A Puppet Rite of Spring. We will also look for national and international partners to help develop it. Together with income from the international touring we are forecasting to make a profit in 2025-26.

Continuing to be a resilient and happy, light company structure

The new administrative structure and governance are working well together providing a happy working atmosphere, increasing the diversity of our collaborators. We anticipate managing this year’s tours which we will both be on as company manager and director/ performer.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace, which we receive free from Google because we are a not for profit organisation, continues to be our administrative base. This will be very liberating for the company allowing us not only to work remotely but reducing our overheads of having an office, and allowing us again to focus our expenditure on creative practise. We are currently migrating our website to Google Sites and starting to engage with the AI features offered by Gemini.

Small company exemptions

The above report is prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

This report was approved by the board of trustees on 15 December 2025.

[OVA] |[WR] DocuSigned by: 1B4BB85E4402475... Fiona Arnold Trustee

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Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of Blind Summit Education

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2025, which are set out on pages 15 to 25.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The trustees (who are also the directors of the company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

Having satisfied myself that the charity is not subject to an audit under company law and is eligible for independent examination, it is my responsibility to:

Basis of independent examiner's statement

My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a "true and fair view" and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention

  1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in, any material respect, the requirements:

  2. ꞏ to keep accounting records in accordance with section 386 of the Companies Act 2006; and ꞏ to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 and with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities

have not been met; or

  1. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Richard Nelson FCCA Breckman & Company Ltd Chartered Certified Accountants

49 South Molton Street London W1K 5LH

15 December 2025

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Statement of Financial Activities (including Income and Expenditure Account) for the year ended 31 March 2025

Unrestricted
funds
Notes
£
Income and endowments from:
2
Donations and legacies - page 16
3,271
Charitable activities:
Theatre - page 16
70,844
Investments
4,407
Other - Theatre tax credit
44,239
Total
122,761
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities:
Theatre - page 17
143,307
Total
143,307
Net (expenditure)
3
)
(20,546
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward
229,133
Total funds carried forward
10
208,587		 2025
Unrestricted
Total
funds
£
£
3,271
30,100
70,844
13,340
4,407
3,988
44,239
-
122,761
47,428
143,307
139,314
143,307
139,314
)
(20,546
)
(91,886
229,133
321,019
208,587
229,133		 2024
Total
£
30,100
13,340
3,988
-
47,428
139,314
139,314
)
(91,886
321,019
229,133

The notes on pages 20 to 25 form an integral part of these financial statements.

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derives from continuing activities.

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Year ended 31 March 2025

Income from donations and legacies
Grants
Arts Council England
ACE - NPO funding
Donations
Donations - sundry
Income from charitable activities
Theatre income
Performance fees
Box office
Puppetry: making, directing and performance
Education/workshops
Royalties
Reimbursed expenses
Sundry
Commissions receivable
Investments
Bank interest received		 2025
£
2,900
371
26,917
14,627
-
4,600
75
9,625
-
15,000
4,407		 £
2,900
371
3,271
70,844
4,407		 2024
£
30,100
-
4,490
-
7,537
-
-
-
1,313
-
3,988		 £
30,100
-
30,100
13,340
3,988

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Year ended 31 March 2025

Expenditure on charitable activities
Theatre
Production/project costs
Fees
Royalties
Puppetry making/repairs
Books/texts/scripts
Production sundry
Touring accommodation/travel/subsistence
Support and governance costs - page 18		 2025
£
55,019
-
38,655
973
4,680
8,644
107,971
35,336
143,307		 2024
£
39,371
520
47,614
331
3,743
4,081
95,660
43,654
139,314

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Year ended 31 March 2025

Support and governance costs
Support costs
Office overheads
Rent
Computer costs
Insurance
Administration costs
Salaries
Freelance
Social security costs
Travel/transport
Gifts/hospitality
Printing/postage/stationery
Company marketing
Subscriptions/licences
Sundries
Professional/financial
Bank charges
Governance costs
Legal/professional
Accountancy/consultancy/payroll		 2025
£
4,690
28
4,042
12,000
2,425
134
3,210
59
121
5,795
329
28
41
34
2,400		 £
8,760
24,101
41
32,902
2,434
35,336		 2024
£
5,268
114
4,042
12,000
14,735
-
372
316
91
2,821
179
-
103
13
3,600		 £
9,424
30,514
103
40,041
3,613
43,654

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Balance Sheet Balance Sheet Balance Sheet
31 March 2025 31 March 2025
2025 2024
Notes £ £ £ £
Current assets:
Debtors 7 13,346 401
Cash at bank and in hand 198,294 248,134
211,640 248,535
Liabilities:
Creditors: amounts falling
due within one year 8 )
(3,053		 )
(19,402
Net current assets 208,587 229,133
Total assets less current
liabilities 208,587 229,133
The funds of the charity:
Unrestricted funds 10
- General fund 189 -
- Designated funds 208,398 229,133
Total charity funds 208,587 229,133

For the year ending 31 March 2025 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

Directors' responsibilities:

ꞏ The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its accounts for the year in question in accordance with section 476;

ꞏ The directors acknowledge their responsibilities for complying with the requirements of the Act with respect to accounting records and the preparation of accounts.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on 15 December 2025 and signed on its behalf by

Fiona Arnold
DocuSignedby:
¢1B4BB85E4402475.		 Nicholas Bayly
[w01by:
D3523A4706DE464.
Trustee Trustee

The notes on pages 20 to 25 form an integral part of these financial statements.

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

1. Accounting policies

1.1. Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (issued October 2019) applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019) - (Charities SORP (FRS 102)), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The charity meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

1.2. Incoming resources

All incoming resources are included in the Statement of Financial Activities when:

- Donations and legacies

Grants/donations are recognised in incoming resources in the year in which they are receivable, except as follows:

- Charitable activities

Theatre income - income from box office, performance fees and sundry other theatrical income is included in incoming resources in the period in which the relevant show takes place.

Project specific funding - when donors specify that donations and grants are for particular restricted purposes, which do not amount to pre-conditions regarding entitlement, this income is included in incoming resources of restricted funds when receivable.

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

- Donated services and facilities

Donated services or facilities are recognised as income when the charity has control over the item, any conditions associated with the donated item have been met, the receipt of economic benefit from the use by the charity of the item is probable and that economic benefit can be measured reliably. On receipt, donated services and facilities are recognised on the basis of the value of the gift to the charity which is the amount the charity would have been willing to pay to obtain services or facilities of equivalent economic benefit on the open market; a corresponding amount is then recognised in expenditure in the period of receipt.

- Investment income

Interest on funds held on deposit is included when receivable and the amount can be measured reliably by the charity; this is normally upon notification of the interest paid or payable by the Bank.

1.3. Expenditure

All expenditure is included on an accruals basis inclusive of any VAT which cannot be recovered and is recognised when:

- Costs of raising funds

Costs incurred in attracting donations, and those incurred in trading activities that raise funds.

- Charitable activities

Theatre production costs - costs incurred in production and running of productions toured in the year.

- Support costs

The administrative and overhead costs associated with running the office from which the company operates as well as governance costs. Support are wholly attributable to theatre production costs.

- Governance costs

Costs associated with the constitutional and statutory requirements of the charity.

1.4. Fund accounting

Funds held by the charity are either:

Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the financial statements.

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

1.5. Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the settlement amount due after any trade discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid after taking account of any trade discounts due.

1.6. Cash at bank and in hand

Cash at bank and in hand includes cash and short term highly liquid investments with a short maturity of three months or less from the date of acquisition or opening of the deposit or similar account.

1.7. Creditors and provisions

Creditors and provisions are recognised where the charity has a present obligation resulting from a past event that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors and provisions are normally recognised at their settlement amount after allowing for any trade discounts due.

1.8. Financial Instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value, and subsequently measured at their settlement value.

1.9. Significant Accounting Estimates and Judgements

In determining the carrying amounts of certain assets and liabilities, the charity makes assumptions of the effects of uncertain future events on those assets and liabilities at the balance sheet date. The charity's estimates and assumptions are based on historical experience and expectation of future events and are reviewed annually.

2. Incoming resources

The total incoming resources for the year has been derived from the principal activity undertaken wholly in the UK.

3. Net income/(expenditure) for the year is 2025 2024
stated after charging: £ £
Independent examiner
- independent examination 2,400 3,600

4. Trustees' emoluments and reimbursed expenses

The trustees received no remuneration during the year (2024 - £nil).

The aggregated amount reimbursed to trustees during the year was £nil (2024 - £nil).

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

5.
Staff costs and numbers
Staff costs
Salaries and wages
Social security costs		 2025
£
12,000
134
12,134		 2024
£
12,000
-
12,000

No employee earned £60,000 or more during the year (2024 - nil).

The key management personnel of the charity comprise the Trustees and the Senior Management Team. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel of the charity were £12,000 (2024: £12,000).

Staff numbers

The average numbers of employees (including casual and part time staff) during the year was made up as follows:

up as follows:
2025 2024
Number Number
Support 1 1

6. Corporation taxation

The charity is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 252 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to its charitable objects.

7.
Debtors
Trade debtors
Other debtors		 2025
£
12,573
773
13,346		 2024
£
-
401
401

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

8.
Creditors: amounts falling due
within one year
Trade creditors
Other taxation/social security
Accruals		 2025
£
1,303
-
1,750
3,053		 2024
£
16,189
613
2,600
19,402

9. Limited by guarantee

The company is limited by guarantee and does not have a share capital. Each member gives a guarantee to contribute a sum, not exceeding £1, to the company should it be wound up. At 31 March 2025 there were 4 members.

10.
Unrestricted funds
Brought
Incoming
Outgoing
Transfers
forward
resources
resources
£
£
£
£
General fund
-
122,761
)
(143,307
20,735
Designated funds:
Generator fund
219,133
-
-
)
(30,735
Organisational development fund 10,000
-
-
10,000
229,133
122,761
)
(143,307
-		 Carried
forward
£
189
188,398
20,000
208,587

Generator fund

This fund is to support the creation of new work.

Organisational development fund

This fund is to support the company continuing to develop a new business model from 2018

Docusign Envelope ID: F18B4011-9049-455C-9C6A-EE2646C0300B

Blind Summit Education

(Limited by Guarantee)

Notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2025

11. Analysis of net assets between funds

Analysis of net assets between funds
General
Designated
funds
funds
£
£
Fund balances at 31 March 2025
are represented by:
Net current assets
189
208,398
189
208,398		 Total
£
208,587
208,587

13. Related party transactions

During the year the company had no related party transactions that required disclosure.