Highland Perthshire parents have succeeded in setting up their own wraparound childcare club.
Parents warned at the start of the year that after-school childcare places in Pitlochry were so rare some were considering giving up work altogether.
Families formed a board to establish the Den at Heartland Kids’ Club, which will run its first session on Monday March 18.
The club, which will focus on outdoor play, will have a base at Pitlochry High School and a yurt in a nearby field with access to Faskally Woods.
Similar outdoor nurseries have become popular in other parts of Scotland, including the Secret Garden Outdoor Nursery in Letham, Fife.
Term-time care includes a breakfast club on weekdays from 8 to 9am. The first session is a free taster. An after-school club will start in June on weekdays from 3.30 to 6pm.
There are also plans for a holiday club from 8am to 6pm for three weeks in July, a week in October and one in April, in addition to sessions on school in-service days.
Parent Ruth Alexander, chair of the club committee, said: “We ran two surveys over the last few months, which confirmed our expectation of a big demand for affordable out-of-school childcare for children aged 4 to 14 years in Highland Perthshire.
“We have been working hard to make this childcare happen, and have now set up as a charity to run a brand new service with an emphasis on outdoor play.”
Ruth had feared either she or her partner would have to leave their jobs at Pitlochry Festival Theatre if the club was not up and running before the summer holidays as both of the town’s childminders were full.
Ruth said pupils from Pitlochry High School and Blair Atholl Primary had entered a competition to design a logo for the new club – a fox in its den.
Winner Sophia Gonzalez Campbell, joined runners up, Orla Cronin, Caitlin Robertson, Dimitris Zaczek and Chantelle McCauley for a prize giving ceremony at the theatre.
James Laurenson, chair of the Pitlochry and Moulin community council, said there was a lot of good will among the community for the club.
He said he served on another group called the Highland Action Partnership which had just green-lighted more funding for the club.
“This is much-needed. There is no doubt about that. The kids club is a really good thing,” he added.
