Boxmoor Pre School

A parent-and-carer committee and reinvestment in play equipment give Boxmoor Pre School a clear community character. This non-profit preschool on Cowper Road in Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, puts its surplus back into resources for children. Families have a role beyond paying for attendance: the committee helps oversee the building, finances and health and safety.

There are 28 places in total, with a current age range of two to five. At its May 2024 inspection, Ofsted rated the provision Good and found effective safeguarding, secure relationships through the key-person system and targeted support coordinated with other professionals for children with special educational needs.

The practical shape is term-time preschool rather than year-round childcare. Opening hours are 9am to 3pm, with morning, afternoon and full-day patterns set out in the Autumn Term 2025 session schedule.

Learning and Activities

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides the framework for learning and care, bringing children's development and everyday support together. Here, learning through play gives children opportunities to practise social and physical skills alongside creative activities. The framework is the foundation, while the detail of adult involvement determines how much children get from an activity.

In May 2024, activities followed children's interests: play dough gave them textures to investigate and manipulate, while key-person communication groups provided opportunities to practise speaking and listening. These activities combined sensory exploration with opportunities to practise communication. Children could pursue a task that interested them and were encouraged to keep trying.

Adult involvement was also the central improvement point. In May 2024, staff deployment and the depth of teaching exchanges needed improvement so that activities would stretch children's learning further. For parents, the question is how practitioners move play beyond an enjoyable task: whether an adult helps a child try another method, explain an idea or build on an existing skill.

Outdoor and Community Life

In May 2024, children could choose between indoor and outdoor play and devise obstacle courses of their own. That choice gave physical activity a place alongside quieter exploration. Creating a course also allowed children to make decisions about how they wanted to move and play, rather than simply follow a fixed activity.

Community involvement has a practical purpose here. The committee's responsibilities include building upkeep and financial oversight, and surplus income goes back into children's equipment and resources. In May 2024, children contributed artwork and signs to fundraising events. Their involvement connected creative activities with the preschool's wider life.

Relationships and Communication

Tapestry is the online development journal used to share children's progress, with email updates for parents. It provides a connection between activities at preschool and what families hear about at home. Updates can give parents something specific to discuss with their child, rather than relying only on a general account of the day.

In May 2024, key persons led communication groups, and staff used photographs to help children express feelings. Sharing and turn-taking were practised through play. These small interactions matter in a preschool day: children need ways to communicate an emotion as well as words for an activity or object.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

The staffing structure includes a SENCo role and designated safeguarding responsibilities. All staff have paediatric first-aid training and current safeguarding and food-hygiene certificates. First-aid training sits alongside designated responsibilities for safeguarding and additional support.

In May 2024, staff worked with families on toilet training and adapted activities to individual needs. The SENCo also used communication groups and contact with other professionals to organise individual support. This gives families concrete mechanisms to discuss when a child needs help, rather than a broad promise that every need will be met in the same way.

Sessions and Attendance

The address is Cowper Road, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1PF. The preschool operates Monday to Friday in term time, closing for school holidays; opening hours are 9am to 3pm. This calendar needs to fit the family's wider childcare arrangements as well as its working day.

The Autumn Term 2025 schedule offered a morning session from 9am to noon, or a morning with Lunch Club extending to 12.30pm. Afternoon attendance ran from 12.30pm to 3pm, with a Lunch Club and afternoon combination starting at noon. A full day ran from 9am to 3pm, and Ad-Hoc Lunch Club occupied noon to 12.30pm. The distinction is useful: the lunch period changes the handover time for a shorter session.

Enquiries can be made by telephone, email or contact form. Applications use a registration form, returned by email or post. A tour can be arranged by telephone to meet staff and discuss the preschool's work.

Funding and Paid Extras

Funded early education is offered, including participation in the two- and three-year-old funding schemes, alongside paid sessions. Attendance is term-time. The funding information describes support for three- and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds; entitlement depends on the applicable age and eligibility conditions.

The Autumn Term 2025 pricing schedule separated standard sessions from lunch-extended sessions and the ad-hoc lunch period. It also included a non-refundable administration charge dated July 2025. Families should obtain current prices in the preschool's written quotation, keeping that historical schedule separate from the terms of a new booking.

• Term-time cover. The preschool closes during school holidays and finishes at 3pm on opening days. Families needing childcare beyond that calendar will need arrangements that cover those periods.
• Adult involvement in play. May 2024 improvement points concerned staff deployment and the depth of teaching exchanges. On a tour, ask how practitioners now organise themselves across indoor and outdoor activities and extend children's ideas.
• Lunch Club and booking terms. The Autumn Term 2025 schedule offered several lunch-linked patterns. Ask which pattern fits your child's day and how food, non-food consumables and administration charges are treated in the written quotation.

Boxmoor Pre School suits families seeking a community-run, term-time preschool with parent involvement and progress updates through Tapestry. Its session range has included mornings, afternoons and full days, giving shorter attendance a place alongside a complete preschool day.

The May 2024 findings give the choice balance: relationships, communication and individual support were strengths, while adult deployment and the challenge within activities needed attention. For a family whose timetable fits the preschool calendar, the most useful visit will explore how those improvements translate into everyday play.