To send a strongly worded email to school regarding the bus service?

I can understand this being really frustrating, especially paying as you do. I can only say that as any vehicle can break down at any point, this is always a possibility, and it sounds like school have organised replacement as quickly as is possible and also informed parents - which I understand you arent able to check phone at work. But it does seem that theyve done what they can so i do echo what other posters say in what else do you think they should do? (unless it becomes a regular occurence)

Yes you are unreasonable. By all means write an email but make it reasonable explaining what you’d like the school to do differently in the future if this happens again. Not sure what they can do about the bus breaking down but maybe an email to let you know? Member of staff driving out to supervise? Are you sure these things didn’t happen before you kick off? Your child’s in year 7 don’t embarrass yourself a few weeks in.

Its twice in a week though.... not once in a blue moon.
Service the bus appropriately? buy a new one??

Something isn't quite right with your maths there. The OP spends £1000 per year. A state school is open for something like 190 days per year, so that's approx £5.26 per day. 2 trips per day (morning & afternoon) makes it £2.63 per journey. Looks like you got the decimal point in the wrong place.

Wow. So £13 per bus journey if he's at school 39 weeks per year? £26 per day? You'd expect a good service for that!

You left him unattended at the bus stop, not the school.

As you are uncontactable at work, you need to nominate an emergency contact who usually can be reached and ensure that is the first person they call (or in circs like these, it’s probably a text)

It seems they mucked up the contacting arrangements by trying to reach you instead of the person who is likely to be available, so a fairly blunt letter pointing that out might be indicated. You don’t want notifications to go wrong again.

But a bus breaking down? These things happen. A replacement was sent in a reasonably timely manner. I’m not sure what else could be done

I can see it’s had an undue impact on you (perhaps because it’s 2 on the bounce whilst your DS is a new joiner). But at the moment it’s still squarely in the category of bad luck, so the only thing to need attention is making sure that the emergency contact is correctly recorded

Sending an angry email won't achieve anything. Sending a rational email, registering your dissatisfaction with the situation will have more impact. Before you draft it think about what you want to say and what as a parent you expect to happen in these circumstances and how you think the coach company/school could handle it. The school/coach company may not agree with your suggestions or be able to do anything about them but at least you will have tried. If you're not satisfied then you will have a decision to make for next year and can look into more reliable alternatives.

It really depends upon the reasons why they're late.

We've had a few bus breakdowns and major accidents on the motorway, causing a backlog for all other roads, Inc the bus route.

If they're consistently late because the bus driver overslept, then I'd complain/ make enquiries to the school AND the bus company. Being late to school is detrimental to the kids education.

Complain but there's not much the school can do if the bus breaks down. If it becomes too much a problem the school might not bother with a bus service. In which case you have to find another way of getting your child to school.

There is no point in a strongly worded email if you mean it's going to be patronising or stroppy. Don't write it when you're angry.

You'll get a better response if it's calm, factual and has an outcome.

My primary aged children travel on a council arranged bus. We have had problems in the past but we were given the depot phone number. We are supposed to ring county hall at 8.15 am if the bus hasn’t arrived p, unfortunately no one is in who can deal with it. The bus depot, it’s a private company, are great. They can track the bus and say when it will arrive or tell us it’s going to be a long wait.

I think you’re right to complain but the school/bus company need to give out a contact number so the children can find out what’s happening. We have to ring up if the bus is more than 15 minutes late.

They don’t have a spare bus waiting to jump in and go for every single bus route just incase. An hour and a half isn’t that long to wait. Things like this happen, fortunately not too often.

Complain if it makes you feel better!

But the reality is transport can break down and it can be late. There isn't always another bus available instantly to take it's place.

Do you have an alternative solution to suggest to the school?

Does your 11 year old have a phone? It's your responsibility to make sure they or the school have someone they can get in touch with if necessary if you can't answer your phone at work. Not just because of delayed transport but in case of another emergency.

A key to the house is also useful if he needs to walk back home.

You need to massively calm down. “Absolutely raging” is a ridiculous overreaction.

There’s nothing anybody can do about the occasional broken down coach - shit happens. Has your car never broken down or got a flat tyre? A couple of hours of lost learning in y7 is trivial.

Your child was presumably waiting safely with others at a bus stop and is completely fine - and honestly if they weren’t I’d argue they were your responsibility rather than the bus company or the school’s. Were school supposed to send a teacher to wait with children at every bus stop or something?! Send taxis?

Honestly as someone who worked in education schools actually have to work quite hard to get bus/coach companies to take these contracts.

At secondary school the presumption is that in general the students are old enough to get themselves to school by walking, bike, scheduled bus service or school bus or lift. If there are problems (bike chain breaks, bus doesn't come etc) then again the presumption is that the student (and/or their parents) are able to deal with it.

Late busses were a permanent problem at the school I worked at - at least once a week there'd be an email saying bus number 6 is late reception will do their attendance.

Normally there are a whole load of students waiting at the bus stop. It's their responsibility to be wearing appropriate clothing (although I do know that getting a teen to wear a coat is almost impossible).

We've had situations before where due to an accident the buses just couldn't get through at all. Most kids went home and some were driven in by parents although with several roads closed they didn't get in until very late.

Ideally you need to sort your child out with a phone and someone to call who can help him out in an emergency. If you cannot answer calls at work that won't be you but he does need someone.

He could also carry a key to the house so he can go home if there is a really bad incident and the bus doesn't make it at all.

Definitely worth complaining OP.
If the bus has broken down twice in a week then it suggests this company might not be fit for purpose, and the school should consider giving the contract to someone else. Yes buses break down, but it’s happened to my son’s bus about 4 times in 5 years, not twice in less than half a term.

Did the school or bus attempt to notify you of the problem? (Email or text) or did they totally ignore the issue?

How do you expect them to magic up a replacement bus in less time? What’s your solution as it would be best to put one to them when you rage about it.

I am not sure why people are asking what the OP would like the bus company to do - it is for them to provide the solution, not OP.

If the bus company failed to deliver its paid for service twice in one week then I would expect them/the school to communicate with the parents explaining what the issue is and what they are planning to do about it, e.g. we apologise the recent disruption to our service and the inconvenience caused. There has been an issue with our fleet and we will be providing a temporary service using xxx-coaches. The safety of our pupils remain our priority, always blah blah.

What would you like them to do? These things happen.

It happens , things break down or get delayed in traffic.
Does the company not run a tracker app which you can log onto to track the bus and have alerts for any delay?

Im not sure what answer you are looking for or how much of a delay you believe is reasonable.

If a company needs to source another driver and for that vehicle to be -
the seat size required
walk round inspected before leaving the depo
possibly fueled up
driver tacho'd in
and for the drive time for the depo to the first stop - which can be over an hour on some school routes, and that would be if there is a driver sitting at the depo with nothing to do who can do it within his driving hours.

If you are completely unreachable, then how do you think these emergency situations can be resolved?

What is your actual complaint? The original bus broken down, they sent a replacement. Your child should be correctly attired for the weather to enable them to wait safely for the replacement.

The replacement was there in a fairly timely manner.

Buses do breakdown.

It happens.

Sounds like they sent out a replacement in actually pretty reasonable time.

You can complain but there's not a lot they can do about a bus breaking down.

Does your DS have an emergency contact he can call if you aren't available?

What were you hoping the school would do differently in future?