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?

Councils set their own transport arrangements for post16.

Unfortunately, budgets are being cut left right and centre. 16-19 year olds have to be in education or training but that doesn't mean A Levels.

Equally, people choose where to live. I've lived in towns and lived rurally and still find the 'it's a tax on living rurally' to be nonsense. People choose to live in rural areas because of other benefits, but you don't get the same transport (common sense much). It would be lovely if subsidised travel was there post 16, but where is this magic money tree when people keep voting parties in favour of cutting public services & tax cuts? Ultimately, if people vote to slash public spending then they have to accept that they need to pay for things that are no longer taxpayer funded.

councils are charging far in excess of equivalent public bus season ticket fares for a much more limited school bus service.

That is definitely not right - councils do need to be transparent about why it costs what they are asking for.

I agree about the rural population and preconceptions. Where I was brought up, I could only now afford to live in a surrounding village for which I would need a car (because rural transport is a low priority). Community transport was saved in our area because the exec members kicked up such a fuss about it, I am guessing they were lobbied by residents. We need to do the same about non-statutory school transport, and the impact of not providjng it, or it being cripplingly expensive. I wonder if a problem is (speaking for myself) that we are all to busy being run ragged by being parents to engage enough in local issues whereas elderly people are on the whole more engaged. And education cuts have a far higher profile.

YANBU. My neighbour's children occasionally walk to school on a busy road with no footpath when their parents cannot manage to drive them. We only live half a mile from the town boundary and there is actually a footpath there, but it has been allowed to become totally overgrown by the local authority for so many years, it is no longer usable. Its a bit third world - people having to walk on roads because basic infrastructure like footpaths aren't provided.

Its not due to recent cuts either - its taken 2 decades for that footpath to become overgrown. Repeated please to the local authority and tweeting them with photographs don't have any effect. Its awful.

Don't get me started on this....it got to a point where I was just happy we had a bus pass and my D.C. could get to school.

It's had a massive impact on our schools 6th form, which has now been suspended/closed

Just to clarify a few things:
DS is still 15, 16 next month. I said upthread he is a klutz but he is likely dyspraxic, just we have not gone through a formal diagnosis process so he will take longer than average to learn to drive and can only start to do so days before his upper sixth year. He would be a danger to himself and others on a moped.

I did say the main issue I have is not with the cost, but with the principle - DS is at his catchment school and if he doesn't get a spare seat there is no way for him to get there - but apparently that's tough because he could be an apprentice or choose a subject he's less interested in and will do less well in (he's a more arts-oriented individual with poor practical skills)

Even if I can pay the cost (no I don't get child benefit, yes I do pay my way for self and children) I'm well aware that others will struggle with what is a significant cost. Some people might be paying for twins, or children in adjacent year groups.

I'm honestly not living in the sticks - I'm 10 minutes by train from a decent sized city in a good sized village which has been significantly expanded in recent times (doubled). So perhaps the local authority could consider using some of the developer's s.106 money to subsidise an important bus service to next small town.

Your DS doesn't have a catchment school for post 16. Students apply to the chosen post 16 provider of their choice.

If there is no community need for a subsidised service (beyond a few 6th formers) then that's probably not going to be enough to subsidise a loss making route. Most people who move to village know that they are signing up for fewer transport links and accepting they'll have to drive.

I'm not taking away how frustrating your situation is, I just can't see how a subsidised bus service you describe would fit high on the priority list at a time when all sorts of services are being cut.

OP, the fact is, post-16 education has different rules. It’s not compulsory for your DS to be in school and therefore you won’t get funding for transport. As I said upthread, he can apply for a 16–19 bursary. The fact that he’s at his “catchment” school is irrelevant. If your DS needed go go to a different school/college to do the subject he wanted to do and free transport was only available to the closest school, regardless of need, no doubt you’d be angry about that too.

I teach a post-16 course and many of my students get 2 buses and/or travel for up to an hour each way. Some of them get a bursary, some don’t.

We are not guaranteed a bus place for any year in our rural secondary school and you have to pay about £600 a year. It is the only school that offers transport. There is no village secondary school and we have to apply every year.
The only real alternative is to cycle or walk a dangerous 5mile rural road and as two people have died in crashes on that stretch in the short time we've lived here I'm not keen on letting him do that.
I can't take him to school as I have a younger one who will shortly be starting at primary in our current village.

Our LEA doesn't pay for school transport to this school due to a technicality- the school the village feeds to and is the only one that counts the village as it's catchment area so is more likely to give you a place however isn't the closest by 0.05miles . The other school doesn't take kids so parents in the village 'choose' the one that does so are automatically discounted for transport.
At least we got a place in the school 20kids didn't- there is a shortage in the LEA.
One of DSs best friends is going to be home educated next year because of this.

EvilTwins
Many students take one or more busses/trains/walk either end to get to our 6th form too (one of my students this year has been travelling over an hour in each direction).

Those who live somewhere without access to public transport have to make their own arrangements. That's how it's been at every 6th form I've known.

Harsh as it sounds, it's not the 6th form provider's problem if people choose to live somewhere without good public transport. It doesn't work to move somewhere without public transport links and then suddenly decide there should be a subsidised service for the 2 years it's inconvenient for you.

If there are a few kids locally in that position it could well be cheaper to club together and book a regular private hire minibus from a cab company.

YANBU. Having to pay is one issue; ability to pay but no service to pay for is another.

I was lucky to go to my nearest sixth form with a free bus pass (15 miles away, public bus, the only one from my village at 7am). I have no idea if that bus still runs and what students do if it doesn't.

The assumption that a teenager can/will learn to drive is not the solution: Not everyone can and more cars is just one reason the bus services don't exist.

We don't have a local catchment 6th form. Our kids ends up in Cheshire, GM or Yorkshire. It cost too much for our LA to run.

Our house prices have been driven up by second home ownership and by people selling up from an expensive area to "retire to the country". This creates a situation where our housing market is driven by incomes much higher than our local employment market and by short term let rental yields. So they may seem cheap to someone from London or the home counties but our affordability ratios are some of the highest in the country.

The other problems is that the people retiring to our part of the world have only ever contributed a small amount of council tax - yet require the use of Adult Social services. Our children's buses/ education budgets/ libraries have been cut and our council tax has gone up to provide care for people who have fancied a change.

You can understand why people living in rural areas might be a bit pissed off - we are allowed to live here to provide low wage seasonal work to the tourist industry, but we have to have to suck it up when our aspirations are anything higher. This is where generations of people have grown up. Do they just move out and make way for a Disney version of the country so your Instagram feeds look good And we can wipe your arses when you can't manage yourself.

Unescorted brilliant post

I still disagree with the people saying living rurally is a choice. For my parents the difference in living where they do and in the town three miles away is £100K. If your budget doesn’t stretch that far then it is not a choice. The reason I didn’t eat lobster last night wasn’t because I choose not to buy it, but because I couldn’t afford it. If you live out in the sticks you are still allowed to complain about a lack of services (non-subsidised), if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Paying for the college bus is one of those things though. It doesn’t last long.

My DSs have always walked to our school, about a mile up the road. In its wisdom, the school opened a sixth form annexe in a separate village a few years ago. Students have a shuttle bus which goes back and forth to main site. Was always free. The school have now announced that we will have to pay . It's far less than you, OP , but students and their parents are over a barrel. This is their catchment school and there is no other choice. It sucks.

If your DC chose college instead of sixth form their transport would not be covered. My brother went to a school three miles away and my Mum had to pay for his bus journeys for the entire five years he was there.

Most parents just have to suck this kind of thing up, your DS could get a job at his age.

We have to pay from yr7. It’s almost £700 a year. Dd is going to the local catchment school. The council refused as it isn’t the closest. The closest school isn’t in catchment. Not the councils problem.

It sounds like you can afford it. Thank your lucky stars that is the case. And that your ds had free transport for 5 years.

OP

I think you should consider contacting some other parents and a taxi company or even your local bus company.

Transport has always been a bit hit and miss, I didn't get a bus pass because I went to the RC school, my next door neighbour did, her school was one stop further on the same bus.

I was involved (not the main spokesperson, but mentioned next) in a campaign to retain post-16 transport for teens with additional needs. It was tough, but worth the effort.

Sorry, this link should work.

Buying a car is expensive though (even if it is an old banger), as is petrol so that's not the answer. Plus parking money has to be factored in.

My mum lived rurally and the bus fare would slightly cheaper than what I would pay in petrol.

I was extremely lucky in that I got my nan's old car for nothing but If I drove to school (and did so from 16+), I would have to find a park so would have to leave 10mins earlier, pay for parking, plus pay for petrol and then you have to be stuck in school time traffic jams.

Which is why I only drove if I had something on after school otherwise I either coughed up the bus fare or wait for a ride home when my mum finished work.

It's a discretionary provision and so as with all others, local authorities have little choice but to reduce or not provide it. Blame the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gideon Osborne for the way the cuts to public expenditure have been made.

Unfair to blame bus companies, taxi companies or anyone else for the cost- schools start at the busiest time of day and that is not going to change. Costs would be less if school starts were staggered so a bus could cover more than one school and also take commuters to work, but that is not going to happen.