Little Orchard is a purpose built community childcare centre, which opened its doors in October 2007; it is conveniently located adjacent to Leighlinbridge Parish Centre & Church.

Our Centre itself is quite unique being based in the old parochial house, a period house which dates from c.1780 which has been restored to provide a state of the art childcare centre, many visitors to Little Orchard comment that it has a distinctive atmosphere, which simply doesn’t come with a modern building and another very unique feature of our centre, which adds to this atmosphere, is the walled garden. Our garden facilities boasts one of the largest in the southeast comprising of a large decking area, seven vegetable plots, soft grass play area, large play ground and out houses for storage.

Our Childcare centre consists of individual units for: Babies, Wobblers, Toddlers, Playschool, and Pre School & Afterschool, Catering for children from 3 months to 5 years and afterschool age up to 12 years.

Our opening times are 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday for Full Day Care & Sessional Care in Mornings & Afternoons.

Little Orchard Community Childcare participates in two different government schemes; Free Pre School Year (for each child the year before they attend primary school) and Community Childcare Subvention Scheme (weekly subsidies are available for childcare fees for parents who are eligible under this scheme). Please arrange a meeting with management about eligibility for either scheme. Our centre is inclusive of all children, we are not a profit making organization and our centre is open to all families who wish to avail of care and educational programmes.

Here at Little Orchard we ensure that every child’s Holistic development and learning is fully encouraged and supported through the implementation of a quality programme informed by Siolta; the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education & Aistear; The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework.

Our Programme planning is based on the following principles:

• Quality care is educational and quality education is caring.

• Play is central to the well being, development and learning of the young child.

• Learning is holistic and cannot be compartmentalized: trust, motivation, interest, enjoyment and physical & social skills are as important as purely cognitive/academic gains.

• The child’s needs, rights, individuality and strengths are always central.

• All children are entitled to equality of access and to opportunities to enjoy and to learn within a stimulating and safe care environment.

• A child’s learning styles.

• The age and developmental stage of each individual and group.

• Equality and Diversity.

• Social, Emotional, Cognitive and Physical skills.

• Documented observations and assessments.

Thank you for visiting our page we look forward to meeting you.