Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Post 16 school transport - WTAF?

36 replies

QOFE · 20/06/2019 07:32

Just looking at the options for my 16 yr old to get to school next year, and it seems that either I have to pay £775 for a pass for the school bus, or a fiver ever day for a ticket on the normal bus 😲

I didn't realise it was going to be so much tbh, I assumed there would still be some level of subsidy! She will be staying on at her school, which is 4.5 miles away and the closest school to our home address. It's rural and the road there is absolutely not safe to cycle on (very bendy and fairly pot holey national speed limit A road) with now alternative cycle route.

I actually don't know how I am meant to afford this.... I'm a single parent with a disabled younger child, I work but only part time due to my younger child not being able to attend school full time.

This probably isn't an AIBU, more of a rant, but how the hell can this be fair? When there simply isn't any further education in walking distance?

OP posts:

DisplayPurposesOnly · 20/06/2019 07:43

Have you spoken to the school about financial support?

www.gov.uk/1619-bursary-fund

PookieDo · 20/06/2019 07:46

If you are low income does your DD qualify for the education maintenance?
Also would a student card get her a lower rate on the public bus?

Newyearnewunicorn · 20/06/2019 07:47

It isn’t fair, it’s always surprised me that post 16 travel to school or college has to be paid for and all over 60s can have a free bus pass!
School travel has to be proved by law from 5-16 and I think it’s the term they turn five. So summer borns can be not eligible for two term but still start school because it’s all September admissions now.

S0uthernBelle · 20/06/2019 07:51

We have to pay £220 per term for our over 16 school bus travel. The nearest school ( which is the one my children attend) is over 10 miles away and no way to cycle due to being very rural. It’s like a “rural tax”

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 20/06/2019 07:51

Have a chat to the school. They'll have multiple other parents in a similar situation and will know what help is on offer.

Has your DD been eligible for free school meals? Which UK nation are you in? Wales still has EMA for instance.

stucknoue · 20/06/2019 07:51

The normal bus companies usually have a student bus pass, it's £420 a year here and valid on all services 7 days a week. Worth checking. There's a bursary for low income students to pay for travel

DinosApple · 20/06/2019 07:52

Ouch Op that's terrible. There's outrage where we are are too for a new bright idea being instigated by the council.

They are introducing a new policy for secondary transport. We have to pay for school transport if the child doesn't go to the nearest school...

Fair enough you may think, but being in a village the nearest school is not our catchment school. £300 per term, per child, to go to our catchment school. From 11 up.

Original poster

QOFE · 20/06/2019 07:58

Oh it's complicated by the fact we live in one county (right on the border) but she goes to school in the neighbouring county. However that's because the school she goes to is our closest school by several miles, and if she wanted to do A levels in the county we live in, she would have to travel 25 miles every day and there isn't even a bus for her to catch anyway so that's a non starter. Our "catchment" college only offers a limited range of vocational courses, no A levels at all, so this really is the only option for her if she wants to pursue her planned degree (a science one, so it really does have to be A levels that she does next).

If we lived in the county her school is in, she'd get concessionary transport according to their policy. And if she went to college in the county we do live in, she'd get a bursary of £30 a week that would help massively, but then she couldn't do A levels!

So there is support but we fall between the cracks and I don't think there's anything to be done about that. Either I have to pay, or she has to go a college that only offers vocational courses (and a very basic limited range at that) in order to access a bursary.

OP posts:

Original poster

QOFE · 20/06/2019 07:59

The normal bus company doesn't do anything more than a weekly pass, I've checked. It's £21 a week, and only valid on weekdays because the bus is run by a different company at weekends! You couldn't make this shit up...

OP posts:

dottiedodah · 20/06/2019 08:06

We had this as well, when my son attended 6th form at a school about 6 miles away.From what I gather ,the Councils still seem to see "staying on" at school as some kind of option as opposed to starting work!.Maybe 50 years ago!.Speak to the school and see if you could get any help at all.Does she have a friend who goes by car ?could you see if they may be able to help you at all?.Otherwise if she can get a P/t job to help out or use some child benefit?

Original poster

QOFE · 20/06/2019 08:12

Part time jobs aren't exactly easy to come by round here, she does do babysitting etc in the village we live in but it's irregular. And she wants to do 4 A levels, all very academic ones, so will be studying very very hard for the next couple of years. She also helps out with her sibling quite a lot which is not easy (she probably counts as a young carer tbh but she doesn't like to see herself as such) so I don't want to put the burden of paying for her transport on her!

OP posts:

WhatHaveIFound · 20/06/2019 08:15

The whole system of pricing for 16-18 year old is a bit rubbish. Have you spoken to the school to see if there's any funding available towards the cost of their bus?

If my own DD had stayed in our county she could use her 16-18 pass to buy a child ticket. As it is she travels to a neighbouring country and has to buy an adult season ticket for the train.

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 20/06/2019 08:16

Given the cracks you've described I'd try approaching your local councillors. It's likely the council isn't aware of the cracks your daughter is falling into.

Do speak to the school directly though - they may have some sliver of funding available for such situations

RB68 · 20/06/2019 08:17

It has been this policy for a while. We found out that catchment schools are paid for in transport but so is nearest so as that was our preferrd school we put that down first and got a place plus subsidised travel for first 5 yrs.

I would challenge them not paying for catchment school. COuncils are not known for getting this stuff right and they are implementing government policy. It may take a bit of time to get things overturned though and its often difficult despite the osts involved, to get other parents to give a shit and help change things

Original poster

QOFE · 20/06/2019 08:20

School say they can only offer financial assistance to students from within their county and to ask our home council. Fair enough I suppose but our local council only offer financial assistance to students who attend college within the county, which isn't an option for DD. The "catchment" college is 10 miles away and doesn't do any A levels and the one that does do A levels is 25 miles away and there simply isn't any possible transport for her to get there (I'd have to get her to a village 6 miles away for 7.15am to get a bus that takes over an hour, which just isn't doable with a younger child with SN). I can't do a lift share because I can't guarantee to offer anything in return, I'd be the classic MN CF

OP posts:

NC4Now · 20/06/2019 08:20

My DS gets a free bus pass because I’m on tax credits. Have you checked with college about funding? He gets free meals too, which he wasn’t entitled to at school.

Iltavilli · 20/06/2019 08:21

Agree with PP on approaching a councillor. You have quite specific circumstances and they may have a way of helping (this is right up moats streets). If you’re rural, do you also have a parish council?

Laiste · 20/06/2019 08:29

We're rural too OP, and a few years ago we had more or less the exact same scenario as you with DD3 for the last 8 months of her last year at secondary. We had to move suddenly (landlord sold up) and our new house was closer to the school than our old home. Great we thought. Bonus. But because the house was just over the border into the next county, Warwickshire, she lost all her travel subsidies to her school.

The amount her travel costs were suddenly going to be was madness and totally unforeseen by us. In the end i had to organise my life around driving her to school and back the 5 miles for those last months

CuckooSings · 20/06/2019 08:31

It still might be worth asking other parents . A single mum in the next street had a difficult pregnancy and three of us school mums set up a rota to walk her kids to and from school for a yeaer We all walk pass her front door anyway so it wasn't really an inconvenience. She was clear from the start she wouldn't be able to reciprocate but she did do favours - like taking in parcels as she was at home all day. Shes not a friend. If i was driving my child to school everyday anyway and had a spare seat i'd cheerfully pick one more up for a few quid a week towards petrol.

Lemoncurd · 20/06/2019 18:11

Could be worse, my 16 yr olds pass will be £1540 for next year (up from about £1300). It's only 4 1/2 miles away, but not our closest school so we have to pay. Didn't expect it to be anywhere near that much when we applied for the school!

Anarchyshake · 20/06/2019 18:43

I'm dying to know if you're my friend. Which is completely unhelpful.

I'd be looking at bursaries through the school and there's a website somewhere which friends of mine used to help them fund their further learning, because they lived in one of the situations specified by the grant (private grants which people with the money set up to benefit certain people, there's all kinds of criteria).

Does she have any friends in the village whose parents drive them and who will also be attending sixth form?

Anarchyshake · 20/06/2019 18:44

Can't specify why I typed that first bit; it would out you if you were.

Xmr1986 · 20/06/2019 18:51

It's not a fiver a day on the normal bus. The local bus company offer a monthly or annual pass, surely? Most also offer student tickets.

NoSquirrels · 20/06/2019 18:55

Yeah, this was me at sixth form. My poor parents! College in a different county to the ‘closest’ college, which would have taken longer. They could pay, and did, but it was expensive and weekdays/one bus per day sort of affair. So shit.

There will be a charity somewhere who will give a grant for this, I’m sure. Do you want to post general area and MN could have a look for you? You mention her being a de facto ‘young carer’ - I’m sure there will be funds available to help somehow.

WoollyMollyMonkey · 20/06/2019 19:16

Have you thought of raising this with your MP and see if he/she can help?

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread