why no school transport for sixth form?

[ichbineinstasumer]

DS will go into Y12 in September. A few months ago we got a letter saying he would not be eligible for school transport anymore, although we could apply and if there was a spare seat we might get one, at a cost of nearly £700 per year.

We applied and we will get a seat, so that is one worry off my mind.

But this has annoyed me. DS lives in the same house as he has lived in for years 7-11, and will go to the same school (our catchment school). It is 4 miles away and there is no safe walking or cycling route - I am a cyclist and would not risk this journey. The only bus between our village and this local town was cancelled this year. I leave for work before 7.30am and could not get him to school by car. Without the school bus DS could not attend his catchment school, and the other school which he could reach on public transport does not offer one of his chosen A level subjects.

My DS doesn't have an income just because he is 16, and I thought children had to continue in some kind of education or training until aged 18 now - so attending school isn't really optional (or attending some kind of school, anyway).

AIBU to think that it is arbitrary and unreasonable withdraw school transport from sixth formers - he may not get a space next year and then what? My DD, going into Y10 might not get a seat when her time comes.

I do also object to paying nearly £700 as well (more than I pay for an annual rail pass for a longer journey and valid every day of the year) and wonder if this is subsidising the bus service for years 7-11 - my income hasn't risen due to my DS going into Y12, but I am more angry to be told that I have no business relying on a school bus for a 16 YO.

AIBU?

Education, via schooling or otherwise, is a right only during the Compulsory School Age years, which does not include Sixth Form (it was the participation age that was raised, not the CSA)

Different councils do prioritise their budgets in different ways, and some are distinctly more efficient (your vote in your local election really matters). You might've on a hiding to nothing, as councils really don't seem to offer anything other than the staturtoey requirements anymore. But if you want your council to change policy, or at least have an 'exceptional need' category added, then start by lobbying your councillors.

All due respect, I think your anger is misdirected.

At present, many schools are having to make very tough decisions. Subjects are being cut from the curriculum as they can't afford the teachers. TAs are being culled in the thousands--again unaffordable. Resources are ridiculously low and in some cases funded from teachers own pockets.

Education spending has been slashed by £7bn since 2011. Read that again. £7bn. What the hell are schools meant to do?

The fact that for the last 5 years, your school has managed to fund free bus places for students is a bloody miracle and whilst I agree it's unfair you're now lumbered with a £700 per annum bill, you've been incredibly lucky to have had the service you've had so far! With money so incredibly short, schools have to draw a line somewhere and, frankly, most schools can't even afford the kind of funding you have had in terms of free bus passes over the years.

Get angry, but don't take it out on the school. Write to your MP- make sure the school is not vilified, but the government, as they are the only ones at this point that can reverse this. Fight all the way, but fight a government who DOES believe education is a privilege not a right.

Oh ffs. There were paragraphs in that...

Weirdly, Greater Manchester has just introduced a free bus pass for 16-18s, so from September my 18YO will travel free on buses but my 15YO will have to pay!

A boy lives near us who walks the 4 miles to school (the closest sixth form to us) along a notoriously busy road with no pavements, because his parents can’t pay for his transport. It’s a disgrace and a typical example of Tory attempts to keep the poor pushed down. I don’t know what the alternative will be when dd1 starts sixth form next year - I guess we’ll just have to cough up the money. But we have no alternative.

Crazyfrog, I thought the money came from the LEA not the school (Academy situation here) so it wouldn’t cross my mind to get angry with the school, just those providing LEA budgets. But in fairness I have no idea how this works, so would be interested to know...

it is unfair, the need to be education yet the bus/train companies still insist on an adult fare once 16, there are cards and schemes in some areas to help but it doesnt make sense now the education rules have changed.

i had to give up smoking when dd went into sixth form, not a bad result, but the money was needed

But you said there is a public bus to a school your DS could attend but it doesn’t do the subject he wants, that’s the same choice for every child choosing their next step, you weigh up the choices at your local school or college against the costs of travelling further away for a different course.

After yr 11 there are so many more choices for study or training courses, on the job training that travelling has to be factored into all the choices and free transport shouldn’t be provided except for some children with disabilities.

After yr 11 there are so many more choices for study or training courses, on the job training that travelling has to be factored into all the choices

Choices?!

It is local authorities who fund school transport. Nearly all have cut back to statutory minimum.

It makes a mockery of catchment areas or the concept of feeder schools because statutory only requires them to provide transport (to end Y11) to the nearest school. Could be over a county boundary.

This breaks the link with democratic accountability.

The OP was querying cost. LAs should not be charging for one service to subsidise another- not when that service is something that is so evidently a right and a public good.

Other PPs have rightly said this is a matter of priorities. I work for an LA and am acutely aware of budget cuts. However, I live in a different LA and am acutely aware of vanity projects in our county town, expensive corporate team-building, PR puffery printed and posted to every household.

The issue here is lack of equity and that LAs are getting away with narrowing the choices available to, and increasing the financial burden on, families who live outside their urban areas.

I have had to pay more than that for my dc for the whole of secondary just because they go to a grammar school.

I don’t think either is right. Stripping choices for some. We’ve had help from grandparents.

It's more like £3.70 a day, there's 190 teaching days in a school year.

£3.70 seems steep for a return journey going 4 miles. How does that compare to the local bus company's charges? Could you ask them to justify this cost if the local bus company charges £2 return or whatever?

Housing costs are lower in places with poor/nonexistent public transport options. This is a fact of life.

You have the seat on this bus this year so you have a year's notice to plan for a better option next year - you are quite right that there is no guarantee that DS will get a space for his upper-sixth year.

I think you should plan to have moved to somewhere with more reliable transport options by the time DS is due to start upper sixth. Not to do so is to choose to take a massive gamble with this future.

No they’re not necessarily. We live in an area with crap transport. There is a huge variety of housing prices and incomes. Some higher and some less than the city which has variable housing areas too.

I see your point but people don't like raising taxes do they. Weirdly it's often people from poorer areas who vote Tory and don't put two and two together.

Tbh it seems fairly good to me at just under £2 a journey but I know people in cities always consider free or very low cost transport an entitlement.

I have no problem paying for the transport, it’s not the closest school, we chose it, fair enough.
I do have a problem with having to start the School Run twice a day again for Yr12 and 13 because the council won’t upgrade from a mini bus to a proper bus.
What an attitude; you chose the further away school so get your child to it!
In Scotland you go to the catchment school; none of this crap of applying for certain schools; if for a reason your child does go to a different school through your choice it’s your responsibility to get them there.
The OPs DS is 17, more than able to cycle, learn to drive.

When does DS turn 17? Get him driving ASAP and a car and your transport issues will be solved. He might even be able to run your other child in as well and be a great help to the household having another driver.

You do have to consider things like public transport and ‘educational black holes’ when you move to a cheap rural idyll. It’s your choice to live there.

Also you could drop DS at college even though you leave at 7.30. He could go to the library or something and do homework, or get breakfast, or go to the gym.

It's budgets. In our area they've done it at the other end of the scale too. Kids don't qualify until the term after they turn 5, and are therefore compulsory school age. My ds will be 5 before he actually starts school, due to staggered reception starts and an early September birthday, but he still doesn't qualify.

am acutely aware of vanity projects in our county town, expensive corporate team-building, PR puffery printed and posted to every household.

The transport teams are not the ones who set the budgets, they are the ones who have to restrict what they can offer in response to being told told what their budget is.

They don’t say “great, we can save this money and give it to that lovely monument the tourism team are building”.

If money is going on football stadiums etc and not school transport that is a leadership issue. Councillors are the ones who decide how to spend the ever-decreasing budgets so lobby them.

I see your point but people don't like raising taxes do they. Weirdly it's often people from poorer areas who vote Tory and don't put two and two together.

Quite.

Emmapeeler yes, I understand how budgets work and I'm not blaming transport teams.

It's at the leadership level that decisions are made about allocations between teams. Our county council has pursued a policy of 'consultation' about School transport which has painted people living in villages as 'privileged' and in which council leaders (the 'cabinet member for education' in fact) encouraged people to consider whether 16 and 17 year olds are more deserving than elderly people.

To those who think village life is a rural idyll and suggest moving for DC's sixth form... my village has a fair proportion of families in HA or council housing - care workers, special School TAs, vet nurses, farm workers. Essential jobs with not a huge amount of flexibility to build school runs into the daily schedule. Low income families who don't qualify for benefits, but for whom two lots of £900 ( the going rate for 6th form transport here and a reality for twin families or born close together siblings) out of taxed income is a real crippler.

Schools are sometimes not accessible by public transport and councils are charging far in excess of equivalent public bus season ticket fares for a much more limited school bus service. That's the issue, not some kind of cake and eat it entitlement.

Our school bus is £1200 a year (if there’s a spare space). We live just outside our village so qualify for a free space on distance.

It happens in Scotland too, even though we don't have things like A Level colleges, you just stay at school until you're 18.

We were told in 2007 that the 6th years (final year pupils) were no longer allowed to get the free school bus that drove right into the school car park, we were given a pass for the local bus service that would be accepted between certain times. The bus stopped a 25 minute walk away at the bottom of a massive hill and there was no connecting transport. Also, if you stayed behind for detention sports, clubs, etc by the time you'd trekked down the hill some of the jobsworth bus drivers wouldn't accept the pass as it was outwith the usage times