School holidays are time for fun, for making memories and experiencing the general joy of life away from the classroom.
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It is those experiences the Leeton Out of School Care program has continued to cultivate during the recent term one break.
Numbers have again been steady at constant at Leeton's Out of School vacation care facility, which is located on the grounds of Parkview Public School.
The initiative is open to students from all schools in the shire, with staff on site ready to lead them on a fun school holiday adventure during each term break.
Program co-ordinators Keira Rainbird and Lauren Nelson said there had been plenty of fun on the agenda once again during the autumn break.
"For the first time we did a 'Leeton Shire Council Day' where we went into the council chambers and were lucky enough to have a visit from the mayor," the pair said.
"Tony (Reneker) was extremely engaging with the children and they all had a blast hearing from him, learning all about our council, how meetings are ran and what it means to be a councillor, mayor, deputy and general manager.
"We did a mock campaign where three children ran for the title of Leeton Out of School Care mayor and the children then did a vote on a ballot. They got to see the mayoral chains and sit in the councillor chairs."
Council staff member Brent Lawrence also gave a quick run down of what Leeton shire means from a town and business perspective in regards to well-known places around town such as the pool, stadium, parks, the Roxy and even Leeton Out of School Care itself.
Week two activities involved a visit to the Leeton Indoor Stadium, a shared lunch with parents and carers, decorate your own watch day and a trip to Griffith.
Both Mrs Rainbird and Ms Nelson reported the visit to council, lunch at the L&D and the trip to Griffith were among the favourite activities with the students.
With such a busy program each school holidays, as well as for the After School Care program, plenty of planning is required to ensure smooth sailing can unfold.
"Planning for a vacation period does require a lot of effort, a lot more than people may think," the pair said.
"We start planning for school holidays usually about week four during the school term.
"We have to plan the programmed activities and schedule those days with relevant businesses and contacts, plan and add into our educational program, complete risk assessments, travel and excursion risk assessments, bus schedule for our awesome bus drivers Graham Parks and Richard Lyons.
"There is also rosters, written authorisations, cooking and craft schedules, daily schedules, personalised behaviour plans, charts and so much more."
Ms Nelson has also been working hard in the background on transitioning the program to new software.
"We continue to thank the Leeton and wider community for the overwhelming support of our service, the children families for making each vacation period so much fun," Mrs Rainbird and Ms Nelson said.
"Of course all of our amazing educators ... without them we wouldn't be able to run such an educational, engaging, and fun program."
