There’s a big change coming to the Playschool next year. In Northern Ireland families currently have 15 hours of pre-school allocation from the Government which unfortunately is behind England and well behind a lot of European countries.

Last year Stormont made the commitment to increase pre-school hours in the Province to 22.5 but with budget considerations that process could take 10 years to move all pre-school settings like ours to the new extended opening times. Last year the first 100 settings expanded their service for the current academic year and the next set of 100 is preparing to move to new hours for 2026. Evergreen Wood was recommended by the Education Authority to be one of them and the Minister for Education has approved that move on Friday Nov 7th 2025.

With 22.5 hours per week for our pre-school children our opening times for them will change. We’ve been opening at 9.15am for the last couple of years as it suited families with older siblings heading to primary or secondary school to get them sorted first then head along to Evergreen Wood so that will continue. Pre-school children, our Playschool Pioneers, will as of September 2026 be with us until 1.45pm. We will still be welcoming pre-pre children, our Playschool Explorers, 9.15pm to 12.15pm and the cost for this will remain £12 per morning a cost we’ve frozen for the last 3 years to try to help families as much as we can.

Mid-morning buffet style healthy snack will continue to be available to all, but as an extra benefit for pre-schoolers staying longer hot meals will be available provided by the EA Catering Service and we’ll have more details on how this service operates closer to the time.

While that covers the mechanics of how extended hours will work the most important bit is more time means more fun and adventures to make your child’s time in Playschool a rewarding and memorable experience.