To address a gap in day care for preschoolers during the school holidays, the Albury Council facility ran a vacation care program.

Service co-ordinator Lisa Keighran said the program was designed for children aged four to eight, with flexibility for age ranges in cases of siblings being signed up.

“We’ve found children under school age have places booked during school, but then it comes to the holidays and parents try to get them into long day care are there’s no places available,” she said.

“We are licensed for 39 children.

“I’m unaware of another program that is vacation care that caters for preschool ages.”

Child development co-ordinator Shelby Robb said the first group of kids had taken part in Henna and science activities, gone on excursions to Supatramp, and had a movie day.

“They’re loving the environment with so many activities,” she said.

“Parents are just so thankful there is something for preschoolers.”

Ms Keighran said the service planned to bring back the vacation program for a part of the Christmas and New Year period.

“We’ve had good feedback from the parents that the kids have really enjoyed coming,” she said.

“We’ll be doing some research into when all the preschools are finishing, for what timeframes would best suit, and plan to put out an expression of interest for the next program.”