Taxi pick up from school?

[JavaFern]

DS is going into Yr 6 in Sept. School is 3 miles away. In Jan, 2 months before his 11th birthday, my work hours are changing which mean that I can't pick him up as I always have done.

DH works from home but has to be on work calls at pick up time (he could answer the door and have him at home no problem, but the full school run including getting in and out of the gridlocked school road is about 40 mins which he can't do).

There is after school care to 6pm that we could use but DS isn't keen (he does one day a week at present). There is no school bus.

We don't know anyone who could pick him up and drop him here (we live in a different area to his school friends, no local grandparents etc). We'd be happy to pay someone but just don't know who. (Although, if anyone is in Altrincham and fancies it let me know...)

My question is - is it a thing to arrange a regular taxi for school pick up...? Has anyone done this?

I think you'll find that the taxi company will want an adult to chaperone him.

Public transport ? Yr 6 seems like a good time to have a go at that.

Yr 6 is fine for normal bus if there's a route and time that work - my dd started doing that in year 6.

Otherwise, taxi will be fine. I'm a teacher and we hav5a few children collected by taxi. No chaperone needed.

Yep. I have known kids go to school by taxi unchaperoned.

My friends live very rurally and used a local taxi company to pick up their kids and take them to after school club elsewhere for years. That said, it’s very rural and things are a bit different to suburban Altrincham! That said, there should be a taxi company that you can set up an account with and will have drivers who are police checked (usually the company that provides the council “special schools” with transport). I’m more intrigued as to why he goes to school 3 miles away? By year 7 most kids use public transport to secondary school so this might be a good time to start if he’s sensible for his age.

I used to put my Yr1 in a taxi to get him from primary school (which didn't have an after school club) to a private nursery that did a few miles away. The taxi company I used also used to do school pickups for children in catchment entitled to school transport.

Your issue might be finding one who will commit to it. Most taxi companies have contracts with LA to transport kids. They may also want an escort which will make it expensive. After school club seems a better option.

Ooh thanks for all the replies! I'm relieved to hear it's not completely unheard of.

To catch the public bus to our house, he would have to walk quite a long way and cross several busy / congested roads, which I feel he's not quite ready to do alone. The secondary schools have school buses which pick up from just outside so he should be fine to do this - it's just the last 6 months of primary.

I'll email a few local companies and check with his school once they re-open. I just got my new job today so am fretting about the practicalities!

My child with special needs got a taxi to school for three years. He now gets special transport arranged by the local authority.

He might not be keen on the afterschool but tbh it's probably the simplest solution. I know here minicabs won't take unaccompanied child under 13 outside of LA provision.

Thanks, hmm a mixed picture then, seems like it might depend on the individual firm. I'll update when I hear back from the local companies as to what they say.

I doubt you’d find a company to do it without a chaperone. Agree could trial him coming home on the bus, or he has to go to Afterschool club or childminder. Mine weren’t keen either but was no choice