TOPS - The Orinda Preschool

TOPS - The Orinda Preschool offers a play-based learning experience for preschoolers that is described as rich with history and progressive opportunities. The program’s classrooms and curriculums are set up to enable learning with children’s safety at the forefront, and creating a healthy and safe environment for learning is stated as important at TOPS. The outdoor classroom is a shared community space regarded as indispensable and central to all children’s learning, with the primary goal of providing a stimulating, challenging environment for children to explore their abilities.

• Ages: 2–5 years old
• Schedule: Tours are typically scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10am.

TOPS - The Orinda Preschool has been providing play-based preschool education for preschoolers since 1938 and is described as having provided play-based education to the community since that time. It was first established in 1938 as a private school for supervised play and received its more official beginning as a licensed program in 1943 with about thirty children in attendance. The program is committed to providing high quality early childhood education programs that recognize and support ongoing changes at the public school level while upholding a play-based learning philosophy that emphasizes social competence and emotional well-being as a strong foundation for cognitive development. TOPS currently offers three preschool age programs (2s/3s, 3s/4s, and PreK) with 76 total enrolled students.

Last updated June 19, 2026.