1950 — 2025 · 75 years

75 years
of making school.

Pre-school and Primary School · Lisbon

Since 1950, O Lar da Criança has welcomed children in Lisbon. More than a school — a family where each child learns to read, to write, and above all, to be.

75
years of education
3 generations
of families
8:30 – 19:00
extended hours
Two pupils of O Lar da Criança smiling and interacting with each other
What moves us

Educating with rigour.
Nurturing with care.

Family atmosphere

Small classes, teachers who know every child by name — and by heart.

Learning to be

More than content: questions, experiences and the confidence to grow.

Living tradition

Seventy-five years of history, renewed with every new generation.

Children of O Lar da Criança cooking in the kitchen room
Children weaving a rug on an improvised loom in the courtyard
Pupils of O Lar da Criança choosing books at the book fair
Levels

From the first pencil
to the last reading.

We accompany each child from pre-school to the end of Primary School, with a stable and experienced team that grows with them.

Primary School

Reading, writing, thinking — and learning to think for yourself.

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Extracurricular

Music, cooking, arts, sport and after-school care in a safe environment.

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Former students of O Lar da Criança in a group photograph from the school's early years
1950 — Today

For 75 years
a "home of hope and love".

Founded in 1950 by Berta Ávila de Melo with a simple idea — a school that would be a home — O Lar da Criança has crossed generations without losing what has always defined it: care, rigour and respect for every child. Since the 1990s, it has been led by Rita Ávila de Melo.

About the school
Classroom of O Lar da Criança with natural light and children's work
Children learning numbers with modelling clay
The O Lar da Criança building in Lisbon
Pupils of O Lar da Criança at the awards ceremony
Voices of former students
"It was a second home, where I felt as comfortable as in my own. There was a sense of family warmth — we were a family."

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, former student and President of Portugal

Visit us

Come and meet us.

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