Advice please-choosing the same school as the sibling/school transport

[Stumpie]

Can anyone advice please? We have just heard that Gloucestershire Council is going to try and charge us a huge amount of money for our daughter to use the school bus. We have been told about £400 a year, but haven't seen that in writing yet. Our son already uses the bus for free and that will continue. The excuse they are using is that we didn't chose our nearest school. We didn't because we chose the school that our son already goes to. It will be mad to put our son on the bus and then follow it down with our daughter.

The question is: Does anyone know the rules about choosing the same school that an older sibling already goes to?

I have been searching, but surprise surprise it is difficult to find anything out.

Thank you

[Stumpie]

Bump

[Snowsquonk]

To be honest, I am surprised they are not charging you for your son. I've chosed to send DD to a school outside of our area and I pay around £600 a year for the bus, and this will double when youngest DD goes in two years time. I had a choice - catchment school which they could walk to (and which is crap) or outstanding school and either drive them or pay for the school bus or public bus.

There may be a reason your son is eligible for free transport but your daughter is not and with county councils cutting funding you may find the free transport for your son disappears.

[Stumpie]

Frustratingly the reason why G goes to the school he does is because our closest school only takes 18 pupils a year and so we had no option but to put him into the one he goes to as the other one was full.
I think it might be cheaper for the parents it is effecting to group together and get a mini bus.

[prh47bridge]

They are acting within the law. They do not have to provide free transport if there is a nearer school the child could have attended. There is no exception to allow siblings to attend the same school. They have to provide free transport for your son as there were no places available at a nearer school but your daughter doesn't qualify I'm afraid. If you had applied to your nearest school and she had ended up at the same school as her brother because there were no places at your local school it would be a different matter. But of course if you had applied there she may well have ended up going there.

The only good news is that Snowsquonk's fears are unfounded. They can't remove free transport for your son unless there is a change in the law.