What is Littlemagictrain?
Littlemagictrain is a multi-sensory resource that has been created using movement, music, stories, and imagination. To create a bridge between the real and imaginary world that engages your children so they are learning through play and creativity.
Each adventure has had illustrations and music, specifically created to move the adventure forwards. Littlemagictrain is a high-quality, exceptional resource for anyone working with babies, toddlers, and young children.
All adventures develop
Speech, language, and communication skills.
Personal and social development.
Emotional regulation while building self-esteem and confidence in their abilities.
Knowledge and understanding of the world.
Physical literacy.
Early science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, and we help you put the A of creativity and imagination to turn STEM into STEAM.
But wait there is more
We have created communication, sensory, yoga, STEM, provocation, and creative activities for each of the adventures to enhance the learning experience for your little ones and to make your life easier.
For you and your team
You are part of our family. A family that is supported every week with access to live online training, support clinics, WhatsApp group, and access 24hrs a day to online training videos. It is important to us that you, like your children, feel confident and supported at all times.
The Birth: 2004 – 2010
During this time Gina met Jonathan Still and Daniel Jones the original masterminds behind the music and the Littlemagictrain was officially born in the spring of 2004!
Littlemagictrain has been tried and tested over the last 15 years through different venues and ways of delivering from managing classes to licensing (dance teachers/leisure centres/pre-schools and Butlins) with over 100,000+ children per year participating in classes.
However, during this time the financial crisis had a major impact and changed Littlemagictrain forever.
Gina had reports from teachers that some children were being excluded from sessions and being made to sit on the side and watch the others.
Finding this hard to understand Gina visited a few settings and discovered that it was true as some parents were just unable to pay for any extras, quite understandable at this time of uncertainty, and the children were being made to sit and watch.
This horrified Gina who immediately decided to stop sessions in pre-schools and find a way of ensuring all children in a setting would be able to join in and never be excluded in that way.
‘The Break’: 2010 – 2012
Gina took a break from everything and tried to find the best way of emptying all the knowledge and sessions from her head into a resource pack to ensure the adventures were accessible and cost-effective for everyone.
The goal was to create a resource that anyone could just pick up and use. Gina wanted to do all the work so the practitioners could just enjoy the learning experience with the children as they developed their creative skills.
There were a lot of errors and tears (from Gina) along the way and then in February 2012 the first resource pack arrived from the printers.
The Resource Pack Pilot: 2012 – 2014
Now the work truly began convincing settings that they could deliver these sessions in-house with their staff. It took some time but the response was excellent along with the feedback.
There were requests for more sessions. Gina and Jonathan got back to work and this time a new mastermind Andrew Holdsworth came on board to help with the new tracks.
2014 – 2019
September 2014 saw the launch of the second pack at the Childcare Expo in Coventry with great success.
In 2016 Butlin’s asked Littlemagictrain to trial sessions as part of their new ‘Teeny tot’s’ concept as an extension of their ‘Just for Tot’s’ break.
This was very successful and Littlemagictrain has appeared every year since. In 2019 the sessions were developed further with Bonnie Bear appearing on stage with the Redcoats to join in the adventures.
2020 and Covid-19
This has been a difficult year but remember you can still take the children on the Littlemagictrain for fun adventures within your Covid secure bubbles. During lockdown, Gina ran virtual sessions for nurseries in Bridgend and Swansea to help with training and to keep the children engaged during these difficult times.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, Littlemagictrain was suspended at Butlin’s to ensure the safety of all their customers and staff.
2022
Post-Covid. We bounced back into Butlin’s ‘Just for Tot’s’ breaks with our new adventure ‘Looking for pandas’. Littlemagictrain was so happy to be back with the amazing Redcoat’s in Bognor, Minehead, and Skegness.
In October Littlemagictrain hopped onboard a big plane to India to join up with Rudo, the giraffe, and the Little Buddy International Pre-school group. Unfortunately, this relationship was not a good match with the ethos of Littlemagictrain and we went our separate ways.
2023
During 2023 Littlemagictrain will be exclusively at Butlin’s on all their Showtime breaks on the fabulous Skyline Stage. Showtime breaks run throughout the year during term time.
In October Gina signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dileep Aadhi the creator of De-SkooliT. De-SkooliT will introduce Littlemagictrain to their and other early years settings, and primary schools, across India. Littlemagictrain is very excited about this collaboration, with Dileep and his amazing team, and can’t wait to update you on our progress.
2024
Littlemagictrain is very excited that the Redcoat’s are delivering our interactive ‘Amazon adventure’ in Minehead, Bognor, and Skegness on all their Showtime breaks on the fabulous Skyline Stage.
We released our brand new ‘South African Adventure’ where your little ones will meet animals ranging from Meerkats to Hippos!
We will keep you posted…
The Creator: Gina Bale
Littlemagictrain is the brainchild of Gina Bale who has been working on this labour of love since 1991 which was born in 2002.
Gina was inspired by her young daughter and a love of trains which was instilled in her by her late uncle and grandfather.
Gina’s background and reasons for her creativity. Gina originally trained vocationally for a career in ballet at the University of Cape Town, Bush Davies School, and then Scapino Dans Academie in Amsterdam (known now as Dutch National Ballet Academy). The Scapino Ballet was created in 1946 to help children escape from a world full of fear and to help them start believing in a new reality, a world without war.
Due to an injury, Gina left the world of vocational ballet and spent several years doing different things trying to find her place for her creativity. After taking a ballet class for the first time in over 10 years, the Royal Academy of Dance offered a place on their teaching course. This was the start of Gina’s passion for teaching little ones – the best decision ever!
On graduation from the Royal Academy of Dance, Gina was awarded the Iris Truscott Bursary and used this to attend a SEND course specialising in dance at the LABAN Centre, London.
Gina worked in ballet schools gaining experience and then set up her school ‘The Southfields School of Ballet’ in South West London.
Very quickly the school acquired contracts in local nurseries and primary schools and this was how the seeds of Littlemagictrain were planted. Gina saw the need for something more than just music and movement sessions for pre-schoolers and started to think about how you could engage young children to learn about the world around them through fun whilst keeping them fit and helping them build confidence in their abilities.
Gina piloted a few ideas but in 1999 she had to sell her school due to a very difficult pregnancy. However, this break from teaching gave Gina the time to think about her ideas and the issues she had come across while teaching in early years settings.
The early pilots (successes and failures) of Littlemagictrain helped turn it into a multi-sensory learning experience.
Whilst developing ideas for sessions Gina started teaching again and worked on projects to fund and copyright her own baby Littlemagictrain which was being designed specifically for Early Years and SEND children:
- Set up the Cannons Dance School within the London Cannons Health Clubs and ACE Dance Academy for Holmes Place (Now Virgin Active) providing them with dance teachers and training them to deliver a pre-school dance programme.
- Created the Hi-5™ dance programme to run alongside the Australian Children’s TV programme as it aired on TV.
- Created the Angelina Ballerina Dance Academy for Hit Entertainment, which was also part of the entertainment offering at Butlin’s and licensed to qualified and registered ballet teachers.
- Created a dance format for children to dance and participate in promotional events for Angelina Ballerina at Harrods, Hamleys, and Nick Jr in the Park events across the country.
- Joined forces with the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation to provide dance classes in conjunction with Arts & Kids Week with Classic FM.
- Created the interactive dance session for ‘Florence Ballerina’ at Pontin’s Holiday Centres.
- Delivered Primary Steps workshops for the Royal Ballet School.
Gina Bale holds the following qualifications in the teaching of movement:
- Royal Ballet School Diploma of Teaching Dance.
- Trinity College Diploma of Dance Teaching and Learning (Children and Young Adults).
- Royal Academy of Dance Teaching Diploma (Grades and Majors).
Gina remains in practice by continuing to teach movement at a special educational needs school for students with complex needs ranging from 2-19 years of age.