Save the Acorn

A Community robbed of an Established and Important Educational Facility

We, the parents of The Acorn Montessori Preschool & Afterschool, Tydavnet would like to bring your attention to a very sad and frustrating story.

The We never like or want to hear of a school or education facility having to close. This might happen for many reasons, it may be due to insufficient numbers of pupils to attend, it could be socio-economic reasons, persecution or even war but we never expect it to be caused by decisions made by committees who are set up to care for and benefit our communities.

The baffling set of circumstances which has lead to the Acorn Montessori and Afterschool having to close in Tydavnet has left this area without a valuable educational facility, its staff without jobs and its owner's business and life prospects in turmoil.

The Acorn Montessori was established in 1991 by Adrienne Kearns. A lady who’s dream it was, from a young age, to work with children in early education.

Adrienne has told us of how she decided on a teaching career because her own experience of school was a very difficult one. She speaks of never wanting any child to feel that uncertainty, fear and loneliness. In her words, “At the very least, a child’s first experience of education MUST be a happy, safe and fulfilling one, in order to build a foundation for their future academic career”.

This ethos has been very evident in the way Adrienne has run The Acorn since 1991. Firstly, in Monaghan town, moving to Tydavnet in 2011 at the request of the then Parents Association.

Adrienne worked tirelessly with her dedicated staff to almost triple the number of children attending our local primary school, in those short 12 years since arriving to the village.

However, The Acorn fell victim to it’s own success, having to vacate the classroom they occupied in the local primary school, to make way for additional school age children.

Adrienne was met with one obstacle after another as she pursued the wish to continue her dream and provide an exceptional service to the families of Tydavnet.

A new modular building was ordered, with the view to placing it in close proximity to the school, only to have the offer of a site withdrawn at the last minute. Eventually, we felt a solution had been found last October 2024, when the tidy towns committee offered use of land they were leasing. The parents and members of the tidy towns committee volunteered their skills and time, to place the building on this site in a matter of weeks. However, after many months of retention planning applications and tens of thousands being spent on fire certs, fees and rent, that dream was also been taken away!

Adrienne could have walked away from this project SO many times but she decided to stay and fight for the children… for us as a community. So that we would have an exceptional educational start for the children of Tydavnet and surrounding areas.

This situation has left Adrienne stripped of her life’s savings and further outstanding debt for costs associated with the new building and works done. Yet she is STILL willing to try to find a solution.

We want to help her clear those outstanding debts and maybe find a way to keep The Acorn, by possibly buying the building outright, so that we can place it elsewhere and have Adrienne and her staff continue to offer an multi award winning service and help in raising the children of Tydavnet.

Please contribute what you can to this extremely important cause.