Little Pipers Preschool Will Open This Fall In Bel Air With Space For 20 Students

BEL AIR, MD — A new preschool will be opening in Bel Air this fall in time for the new school year.

The Highlands School will launch Little Pipers Preschool for the fall of 2025. It's open to all children, not just those with learning differences, leaders said. The literary-based preschool focuses on the importance of play coupled with a developmentally appropriate education. There also will be educational play, music, art, PE and other enrichment activities.

Classes will be offered for both 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds for either three days or five days from 8 a.m. to noon. There are spots for only 20 preschoolers and the school currently is offering a special toward tuition.

Students must be three or four years old by Jan. 1, 2026, to enroll and be potty-trained by the start of school.

“We are thrilled to open our Little Pipers Preschool in fall 2025. The Little Pipers Preschool will be taught by our seasoned early childhood educators and proven literary specialists, setting the foundation of success for our youngest learners,” The Highlands School Head of School Claudia Nachtigal told Patch. “Students will learn important life skills like how to be a friend in our safe, nurturing, supportive environment.”

The littlest students will focus on nine core elements, Nachtigal said. Those are:

• Social and Emotional Development
• Emergent Literacy: Language and Communication
• Emergent Literacy: Reading
• Emergent Literacy: Writing
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies
• Fine Arts
• Physical Development

"One of the unique elements is that classes will be taught by our literary specialists to help spark and early love of reading," Nachtigal told Patch.

The Highlands School is an AIMS-accredited school that specializes in educating students with learning differences and achievement gaps. Founded in 1996, The Highlands School was originally located in Street then in 2007, moved to an 18-acre campus in Bel Air where the staff works with 70 students in all grades.

Anyone interested in learning more about Little Pipers Preschool can fill out an interest form then the enrollment director will be in touch.