To feel cross that it's going to cost £120 per month in bus fairs to get my dc's to school

[NotMostPeople]

I have another year to go until DS starts secondary school, but when he does this is what it's going to cost. £2 per day, 3 children. We were just under the distance to qualify for a free bus pass however that's irrelevant now as the free bus pass has been cut for everyone. To be honest we can afford it but I'm sure that there are lots of families who wouldn't be able to and it makes me cross.

We lived just under the 3 mile free pass limit.. We had no choice, we walked both ways. School started at 8.30, we would leave home around 20 to 8. Plenty of time, and a mile of that was walking up the main Watling Street that runs through Kent.

Sorry tiggy that is not true of Bucks. It is how it is here. If your child passes the 11+, then they send you a letter saying that they think that your child will be best placed in a grammar school. So the nearest school would be the closest grammar. It would be bloody stupid to refuse the fare if a secondary school is not the best place for your child.

secondary moderns is what you had before comps came into being and are the schools you go to if you dont get into a grammar school. You might want to kid yourself that they are something special but they are in all but name a comp.

tamisara I live in bucks too!

I don't like the Grammar system I'm tempted to move back to Oxfordshire when the time comes! Although saying that, my DS is a way off secondary at the moment!

It makes me furious! We live 4 miles from our nearest secondary school and get free transport, but other children living half a mile or so up the road do not. If it's the nearest school, transport should be free.

I'll join your campaign, BoffinMum!

And PedanticPanda, I'd like to give you - people don't often change their minds on AIBU!

I live in a non grammar school area but you still have the odd school that has kept the word grammar in its name just to confuse everyone

Dd doesn't start secondary for a few years but having looked we are just under 3 miles from the nearest secondary school :( In a small village with a very exposed footpath next to a road where there are frequent car accidents and a crossing of a very busy main road with no traffic lights or pedestrian crossing. Not everyone lives in a town or city with an available school within easy,safe walking distance.

I'm in Herts and there isn't a Secondary within walking distance for us, the nearest I suppose could be walkable although would take a fair old time, but that is a Catholic school and we are not, the next nearest is 20 minutes walk from that school.

:o thanks!

Tamisara. So am i right in thinking that you've ruled out all comprehensives because you think they are not as good but actually they are the same as secondaries?

grannyagedmummy We live 30 yards too short for a free bus pass for my 2 DDs high school. Bus passes house twice a day with 11 kids on board 52 sweater coach. I have lobbied MP and he has tried but hey won't budge sad we live in the catchment area as well. 2.97 miles away by their GPS. 3.1 miles by my car! Limit is 3.0 miles

That's a bastard!

Threads like this make me glad to live in Scotland. Automatic place at catchment school, can apply to non-catchment school if you wish but with no guaranteed place.

You generally know which school your child will be going to based on where you live. Opt-out and you go to public school but of course must be prepared to pay school fees.

When I read these threads my mind boggles. I'm in no way saying the education system in Scotland is superior, however it does seem less complicated getting your child a place at school locally.

YABU

It's your choice to send them to that school, why should when as you say you can afford it, the state pay for the bus passes.

YANBU. Five miles is too far to walk to school, ten miles a day every day. (Of course I'm sure there will be posters who insist that their child can walk this in 10 minutes. But I don't believe them).

Cycling is dangerous in heavy traffic. I live in a town where cycling is very popular but accidents and serious accidents are very common unfortunately. The combination of cars/lorries and bikes is lethal. A child on a bike was killed on my street just a couple of years ago.

bingdweller I completely agree.

Where we are you get free transport to the nearest school if it is further then 3 miles. That is, to a grammar school if the child concerned has passed the 11+ and a high school if he hasn't.

I think most LEAs do the same, don't they?

TiggyTape - do you not think it a bit outrageous that only better off families can afford the transport, and therefore a place, at a Grammar school?

I don't know of anyone here who gets free school transport to any school regardless of the distance.

it costs me about £150 pm for my two boys to go to a school 7 miles away. But we factored that in when we were making our choices anyway. If we hadn't been able to afford it they would have had to go locally.

I am very impressed that OP's DC can walk 5 miles in an hour.
Is car-sharing with other parents an option?

I may well have same costs as OP in 3 years, just for one year, if DC attend schools in towns 9 miles away, but I don't see it as outrageous. Just a factor to consider.
Life is unfair, we know many people who can't afford (what may be) better state secondaries because they can't afford the bus or train pass.

OP is talking about the £120/month for THREE children, I noticed. Did everyone else get that? This is why children are so expensive.

OP said £2/day, but to get to £120/month for 3 children attending 195 days, each cost needs to be £2.46/day, not £2, no? Are the passes useful for anything else? DS does scout events in the same town as his high school, so saves me that train fare at least.

Is that with a bus pass, NMP? Because if it's without bus pass then what with the odd day off (illness, trips, orthodontist etc), the cost will drop again. And it's only while OP has all 3 DC at that school, not every year OP has any child there.

Our LEA safe route get out clause is " it is deemed a safe route even if a parent has to accompany them "

so they don't have to fork out for dangerous routes along duel carriageways/blind bends/deserted routes etc

I'll join the campaign. Up until this week it was costing me £50 a week to get DS1 and DS2 to primary. Now DS1 goes to breakfast club so DH takes him in the car but DS2 isn't allowed to go because of his SN (he has EDS) so I still have to take him on the bus. We are stuck between a rock and a hard place because he is too disabled to go to breakfast club (it's an exercise and healthy breakfast club so would use up all his energy before school starts) but not disabled enough for free school transport. He can have a free bus pass when he is 5 but it can't be used before 9am so useless for school.

tamisara I used to live in bucks and went to secondary school there. I agree with you that secondary and comp are totally different and the school I went to would be totally innappropriate for someone who should have gone to grammar school. We didn't have the transport issues though because my secondary school was right next to the boys grammar and the girls grammar (cue fights at lunchtime )

FFS, of course YANBU. At that rate it would be cheaper to drive them. I worry about all these extras with state grammars. And there are multiple reasons for not going to your nearest school! For one thing, our nearest school would still be a bus ride away! Quite common for secondary schools. I grew up in a suburban area and still had to get a bus to the nearest school.

"TiggyTape - do you not think it a bit outrageous that only better off families can afford the transport, and therefore a place, at a Grammar school?"

If people though this sort of thing outrageous, the grammar school system would have been rightly consigned to the dust bin of history everywhere, not just in most places.

In my car, 20 miles/day would cost about £9 so still less than OP is paying.

I don't see why being in or out of catchment is so important as to whether transport is paid for, maybe it's wrong to pay for any school transport except for Statemented children. I live in a rural area so the only way we have any choice in secondaries is to look at schools in other catchments.

Pedantic - its a good thing as someone else said people don't often change their minds on AIBU.

Our local authority did have a free pass for children who live a set distance away but this has now changed due to cuts. The grammar is in a very affluent area, it's fair to say that the further away from the school the lower the family income. I'm sorry but I do think it's wrong, grammars should be available to all children not just those who can afford the transport/uniform etc and that's without mentioning tutors.