To think the Headmaster should realise that rural schools don't run like a town school (transport related).

[Sunnymeg]

I'm not personally affected by this, as we drive DS to school. DS goes to a rural secondary school, three quarters of the children travel to school on transport provided by county.

The school buses are all times to arrive by at least 8.45am. In previous years, GCSE students have caught the bus as normal and gone straight to the exam rooms. However we have now been told that GCSE students have to be in school by 8am. No reason has been given. I can only assume that it is to give school time to do their admin etc and make sure everyone has turned up.

We received an email about this over the weekend. The secondary school is in a village location and I would imagine that lots of parents already have their own work commitments and probably work in one of the two nearest town's, both some 20 miles away from the school.

The more I think about this, the more unreasonable it sounds. The Head has only been in city schools, previously. Some children have a journey in excess of 20 miles , due to the rural location.

I cannot understand why he is doing this and why he has only given a few days notice, what does he expect people to do. The majority of them will probably continue with their existing routine and put their children on the bus.

However the kicker to all this, is that the email says that if children don't arrive by 8am their names will be taken and repeat offenders will not be allowed to attend prom!!

Live up dirt tracks!

Goes to show my naivety of living in an urban environment where ds is able to walk to his (non)catchment school that I am surprised that the school doesn't already have the information, at least about buses and transport arrangements unless of course, they are trying to save face by making it appear that they weren't previously aware

I can see why they want the mobile numbers of the young people, so that they can ring them direct if they don't turn up on the day of an exam. Although I presume that they already have at least one of the parents' numbers to contact in the event of non-attendance

How on earth did the school manage before this Head arrived to save them all?

Are they supplying said mobile to each child or is it another demand on parents funds?

Please do find me a year 11 who doesn’t have a phone.

It sounds very much like something happened during the exams last year - kids late or missing the exam altogether, perhaps.

GnotherGnu

I'm in Shropshire and the secondary school in town here is the catchment secondary for a 25 mile radius of small villages and towns who all rely on buses to get here. There's a procession of about 10 coaches every morning and afternoon!

GnotherGnu you could add to that: '25 May Soaped arse & slide. May require change of uniform.'

The transport is generally arranged by the local authority rather than the schools pretty.

I remember being at school (albeit vaguely these days) and at least once a week a note going round all the classrooms in all year groups during the last lesson stating something like 'can all pupils on the X village bus please go to the library after lesson 6' usually because the bus was delayed or something had happened on the bus in the morning that needed investigation. None of the teachers seemed to have much idea who should be on which bus though.

Similarly there was a group of us who had to get the train home as our only option, only the train left the station at 3.35 and it was a 10 minute brisk walk from the school to the station so we all got excused 5 mins early from the last lesson to be able to catch it. For a very long time there was a not insignificant number of children who claimed to get that train who didn't before anyone at the school caught on to what was going on

School managed just fine in the past. I'm glad DS will be moving onto sixth form in the nearest town 20 miles away in the opposite direction.

So, speaking as someone who lives in rural West Devon, my next thought is "Does the Headteacher realise that even if all the Year 11s are equipped with mobile phones, they may well be travelling through areas where there is ZERO PHONE SIGNAL???"

My memories are vague too Scrowy

Even though I know that transport is usually organised by the local authority (in Scotland) (LEA or Academy in England?), I'd presumed that at the very least the school office would be aware of which buses were coming in from which areas - even if they didn't know who was on them. But I might have a warped perspective as the School Office and/or the teacher on duty (usually the head or one of the 4 depute heads) gets to see every single pupil coming in to the school in the morning as there is only one entrance that they are allowed to use (great way for them to get a feel for what is going on as 1200 pupils pass them on a daily basis ) Playground is through the school building.

But on reflection, one of the friends I have who used to use the transport provided by the council (ds had special needs) was forever complaining about the lack of communication from the school transport and missed/very late pick-ups.

So the more information and means to communicate with GCSE candidates, the school has, the better.

They have asked for the route number of the county buses and the names of the companies who operate the mini buses and taxis that ferry the children that life up dirt tracks that the buses cannot reach

how can they not have a clue about how many children arrive on school buses?

We are close to M25 so not how some would think rural! But our catchment school is 10 miles away. We live a 20min walk from the bus stop. There isn't puplis Transport to school.

There are 4-5 double Decker buses drop of and pick up outside of school.

The school has parents numbers for all the kids on the different Buses. We get a text if our DC buses is running late/broken down (happens a lot). The school know that 70% of the puplis arrive by bus.

*puplic

Surely the usual method of transport was given on the data collection form that is filled in at the start of each academic year. They already hold the data on how the students get to and from school. Unless of course these forms differ in other areas?

Well, well, well, what a surprise - NOT

Laughing at the poster who thinks there's a year 11 who would need the school to provide them with a mobile

Luckily phone coverage our way is not too bad, it does fade in and out a bit, but much better than some areas.

I don't think there will be a problem with many of the year 11s not having mobiles unless they have time travelled there from 1995 .

I would expect any head to have a reasonable idea of transport arrangements. All secondaries around here would have people coming by bus and a lot of them have a section about transport on their website, detailing bus times from various places.

@themadgardener exactly my thoughts I’ve just applied for a job at Tavistock secondary school after working Between in a range of locations between Exeter, okhampton and Torbay. I may as well not have a phone for at least 70% of the time 😂😂

@MrsLemonadeBrain Hi neighbour!

Perhaps school want to make sure they have up to date details rather than risk another cock up?

Perhaps if buses are very delayed the Head plans to read out questions down the phone for students to dictate their answers back!