AIBU to expect school transport?

[mumof3boys33]

This has made me annoyed. So AIBU?
We live in 3 miles from our local village school. It is the school of the village in our address. There is a slightly nearer school but it is not our catchment school and also across the border in a different county.
When the children at the school reach year 7 they automatically move up to the nearby secondary school. It is our catchment secondary school. There are various school buses picking up at various places. My oldest 2 get picked up at on our front drive and taken the 7.5 miles to school (obviously picking up lots more children on the way) We do have a nearer secondary school that is not our catchment school as it is across the border, it is only 4 miles away. No transport is provided as the buses don't cross the border. Which is fair enough. Hence attending the catchment school. In our county.
Anyway, my oldest has been offered his 6th form place at the school he's attended for 5 years along with his friends. I applied for a place on the school bus, I know I have to pay £230 a term for this bus, but assumed he would get the bus as usual. I received a letter saying he cannot get on the bus as the school over the border is nearer. I must admit I was not expecting this to happen. So I appealed. Appeal turned down.
AIBU to be angry? It means I have drive 150 miles a week on a journey the bus is doing anyway. It will still be reversing up my drive to pick up the other child. It seems bonkers to me. Why should he change schools? Why should another council school him when we pay tax to our council? It's madness. They say he can cycle the 4 miles to the other school (on a very busy main road) or obviously I take him. The primary school is the same direction as the current secondary (5 miles further on) so if I do have to drive then it doesn't make much difference fuel wise which school. But I still think it's madness.

Of course you should get transport to school at 16. Kids are rarely financially independent at this age and need support.
Presumably the govt and society would like them to one day be in employment and paying tax, so should facilitate that by enabling them to continue their education in the school within their catchment area.
16 is not adult. I wouldn't allow mine to cycle on roads I deemed to be unsafe either!

He's not of compulsory school age. Because that is not a synonym for being of compulsory participation age.

They did not raise the age at which you can leave school. You can still leave at 16. You must continue in education, but it's not compulsory school (assuming you used schools in the first place, of course).

So no, sixth form transport is usually unfunded. Especially nowadays as very, very few councils decide they can afford to do anything more than the statutory requirements.

I think you have been very lucky. We had to pay transport costs from year 7 and these almost doubled for 6th form!

Compulsory education is up to 18 now Melody

Doesn't have to be in school or college though. They can get a job, they just have to show they are working towards a qualification.

A lot of common misconceptions about the new rules till the age of 18. meditrina has it spot on.

We have had to pay transport costs since Yr 7 too but there is no way I would let DC cycle on our local A roads they are insanely fast and busy and people leave way too little room when they overtake. YANBU OP this is the school he has attended for years and it makes sense at do sixth form there and use the same bus albeit paying now.

There are many anomalies in the school bus provision in my area too, people who live in built up areas often don't understand how big a part school transport plays.

You can't glibly say it's only x miles, he can cycle when you know nothing about the roads, I wouldn't feel safe cycling my dcs route to school and there's no way I'd let them do it even though timewise it's feasible

In my area, 6th formers are expected to make their own way to school. They are sometimes given places on school buses if they are available but there is no right to this. Some 16 year olds with sn are not given transport if their needs are deemed by the council to be not severe enough.

YANBU. Bus is picking up your younger child, you are willing to pay for elder to use it... it flies in the face of rationality to say no. Having exhausted their processes, try your MP.

Old enough to join the army but can't cycle on a main road?! Righty ho!

I've been in a similar frustrating situation with mine. Have you looked to see if you have an on demand community bus? This is how my daughter gets to college as her placement is on a different site to the main college with no public bus.

I ended up writing my MP as although my children did get spaces on the public bus and a bus pass (£200 a term) the bus was often full when it reached us so often just went past them leaving no choice for them to call me at work and me have to make excuses to get out of work for a 40min round trip to take them in.

This is definitely something where rural Children need more support.

Have you spoken to the school to see if they can offer any advice?

It's also hard when they want to get jobs before they can drive. The last bus from town is at 5.30 😖. Lots of mummy taxi work. Which is great til they want to work til 9/10pm in catering and you're a single mum with their younger siblings asleep in bed...

I love living rurally 90% of the time but having rural teens is a complete pita. On plus side my eldest learned to drive asap and now helps with his siblings :).

There's no statutory duty for local authorities to provide transport post 16 pupils regardless of distance most authorities ask for a contribution for Sen post 16 students or have removed the services completely

Compulsory education is up to 18 now Melody

Not where we live. Compulsory until 16 then either Sixth Form or an Apprenticeship until 18.

Yes, this counts as 'education', I didn't say 'school'.

Tory cuts have stopped nearly all transport to schools. It is hard. A few years back we had the ridiculous situation of one child being picked up by minibus from the bottom of our drive but her brother, at the same school, not being allowed on the bus despite empty seats because the transport rules had changed.

I've not read all replies. I will go through them. Just to clarify. I am happy to pay the £230 although as they HAVE to stay in some kind of education I do think it should be free. But I'm not complaining about that. I am happy to pay. No other public transport nearby. The school bus literally backs up the drive to pick up my middle child (youngest still at primary) That is the annoying thing. If there wasn't any transport at all then obviously I would expect to take him. I can appeal again and apply for a spare seat in September.
It all seems so ridiculous.
I have another friend who's son has a 6th form place at a college that is just over a mile further than another college. The bus stops a 2 min walk away. So obviously they chose that college. He's been refused a place on the bus because the other college is one mile closer to her house. (17 miles away) yet to get to that he has a over a mile walk to the train station (no buses) then he gets the train and has a fair walk the other end. It's all bonkers. Seems I'm not the only one due to replies.

With regards to your friend, that is BU. He should go to the nearest place of education.

To the cycle comment. I might be a paranoid mum. But no way would I dream of cycling along a road with lorries coming past at 70mph myself. So no way is my son doing it.

I'm with you on the cycling. I'm late thirties and I would be scared to cycle on the roads round here, let alone at sixth form age!

Those saying he should cycle have clearly not cycled on pot-holed, unlit, fast country roads in winter. No way in hell would I want mine doing it in darkness with the insanity I see around here. Out of winter--possibly.

I cycled everywhere in London, which is much safer in the main as there are cycle lanes and more controls on speeds. Our local A road has several shrines to cyclist commuters.

My god the stupidity of some of the replies on here is quite jaw-dropping. It is ridiculously dangerous for anybody to cycle on a narrow rural A road with lorries thundering past at 60mph. A 16yo, in the dark, in the middle of winter? Like hell would any of the people saying he should cycle let their own 16yo do it. As for the poster saying, effectively, 'you shouldn't have had children if you aren't prepared to drive them for hours and hours a week when there's a perfectly good bus doing the same journey', words really fail me. An actual adult, living independently, has that low a level of reasoning skills?!

As for getting there on a moped/bike. The school he's been at for 5 years is 7.5 miles away. It is about 7 miles of windy country lanes. Takes me 20 mins by car. So he's not going to cycle in 20 mins like someone said. Last bit involves a left turn followed by right turn over 4 lanes of traffic. Something I wouldn't want to negotiate on a bike. I've said in previous about main roads to the other schools. My son also finds it hard to make friends. It took 4 years for him to finally be settled so why should ha have to go through all that again? I am talking about our catchment school here. As I said we chose it because the bus collects. The closer school there is no bus as they refuse to cross the border to collect.
Also my son needs to take core maths alongside his A levels as maths is his weakest subjects. The closer school does not offer core maths. I have told the transport people 3 times. But they say the same A level courses are available at the nearer school. They have not mentioned the core maths. Yes I am lucky in that I can take him, I will need to wait until the middle son is collected by the bus going to the same school. Then leave, drop my oldest at school half hour early (not a problem he'll just go into school on his own) then back to the primary school which I have driven past once already. Drop my youngest off then on to work. Luckily I don't work every day and work near the primary school. Though with 150 extra miles a week I might need extra hours to pay for fuel 😜

I think the school in the next county is a red herring. Our DS travelled on the school bus for 5 years to our local (but non-catchment) secondary but as soon as he went into 6th form there was no place on the school bus for him as priority is given to years 7-11. Fortunately we had a public service bus which he could use. There is no free transport for 6th formers as far as I'm aware. Contrary to popular belief the compulsory school leaving age is still 16 and not 18.

Have you checked out your LA school transport policy for post 16 OP?
It should be displayed on their website. Is the bus run by the LA or directly by the school? Is it possible that once they have done all the yr 7-11 allocations that they may have a spare seat on the bus for your DS?

Actually that should say 60mph for lorries. They shouldn't be going 70. I pressed the wrong key.

What Frogsoup said. I was typing something similar but you said it all. I guess if you've never lived in the country it's harder to understand how bloody treacherous the transport routes are (potholed to fuck & unlit at best) and how much rural services have been cut in recent years.