To think that the return to school as normal policy is being dreamed up by people who don't live in the real world?

[Crapster]

I mean safety aside, the basics just don't seem to have been considered.

We live rurally. The nearest secondary school is 4.5 miles away with no safe walking route (down an A road with no footpath or street lighting). The secondary age children from my village and in fact for miles around all take the bus to school. The bus is a public bus run by a major national bus company, which in pre covid times was always rammed for the last few stops with children sitting 3 to a double seat and standing in the aisles. It's also used by a lot of people travelling to work.

The bus company have social distancing measures in place, so are only taking about 1/3 of the usual passengers. They are not adding any extra services to the route and it's not possible to get a different bus because it only runs on this route once a day.

I emailed the school and got a generic reply saying the government had exempted school bus services from social distancing rules. Completely ignored the fact that this is not a school service, it's a public bus so the rules are different. I replied to this effect and copied in the LA transport to school team. Nobody is replying to me. The phones just ring out. The bus company said it isn't their problem (true).

This will affect about 20% of the kids at the local secondary school, many of whom use public bus services. The school coaches don't serve villages that have a public bus running that way, and the school have not hired any extra coaches to make up for this gap in transport provision.

I predicted this would be a problem as soon as anyone started talking about "return to school as normal". If I can predict this issue why can't anyone in charge of the planning? I can only assume it's being dreamed up by people who either live in London, or have staff/a wife who deals with all the school run gubbins (or both)

Yet another reply from the school saying that school transport services are exempt from social distancing rules! Despite me making super clear that the problem relates to normal bus routes not dedicated school buses... FFS. The bus company haven't replied at all.

I think this is one of those things where the issue just falls back in your lap because these are not normal times. You have to facilitate getting your child to school. Can you drive them?

The government went ‘oh shit’ three weeks before schools were due back and have thrown some money at LAs and told them to try to sort it. The LAs have gone wtf where do we get extra buses from with three weeks to go.

I agree think there will be chaos next week with some kids unable to get to school, and some adults unable to get to work as the buses are full of kids, especially if the weather is as bad as this week.

That is pretty shit. My kids school is doing a staggered start and the school buses will now be doing two runs. So some LAs/school are able to think up solutions, which doesnt help you I know. I dont know what you can do really, I would probably email the headteacher again.

My children normally use public buses too, as do the vast majority of students there who travel in from a wide geographical area. We are going to drive them to and from which is going to be a logistical nightmare but we'll have to make it work. The traffic outside the school is going to be horrific. It's bad normally!

I agree there's a lot of guidance that is impossible in practice. E.g. face masks in corridors but also store worn masks in a plastic bag until washing, don't re-wear. So how many masks does each child need?

Even enhanced cleaning with no money to pay for it.

Our local authority has apparently been liaising with schools and bus companies to arrange staggered starts and extra services.

In Scotland, a lot of these sort of logistics only fell into place on the in service day, or during the first week back. The teachers and school staff are still on holiday.

If the first day is disrupted by a lot of children having to get on a later bus, the school will probably deal with it then. I don't think you can expect all eventualities to be covered. It's possible a lot of people won't want to use the bus, anyway, so wait and see.

There will be plenty of people who won’t be able to drive their children to and from school for various reasons. Because they can’t drive, can’t afford to run a car or they have a car but will be at work.

@Crapster

Yet another reply from the school saying that school transport services are exempt from social distancing rules! Despite me making super clear that the problem relates to normal bus routes not dedicated school buses... FFS. The bus company haven't replied at all.

I think its ridiculous how can they exempt it, what's the point in social distancing in general then

Is there an earlier bus? My friends kids are going to school an hour early due to this type of bus problem.

Devon County Council;

"Many young people travel to and from school or college by public transport. With social distancing measures remaining in place on these public services, we have identified areas where additional capacity is required, and will be providing around 70 duplicate vehicles across the county at peak times dedicated to school and college students."

www.devonnewscentre.info/school-transport-guidelines-drawn-up-ahead-of-september-return/

Realistically, what else can be done? We can't build schools, train teachers, etc in such a short timescale. It is what is it really.

Yes, I'm sure some more minor tweaking could have been done over the past few months to make slight improvements, but realistically, if we want schools to go back, so kids can get an education and parents can return to work, people are just going to have to do the best they can and take whatever precautions they can.

We'd never get things running again if we wait months, maybe years, for a perfectly safe environment.

@Waveysnail

Is there an earlier bus? My friends kids are going to school an hour early due to this type of bus problem.

The OP said there isn't an alternative bus as it only runs once a day.

My county, Herts, are also running duplicate public buses on popular school routes To help with social distancing.

Talk to your council?

In London, they are adding hundreds of extra buses a day.

Same in lincolnshire. We are having some of the previous public buses made in to school only and a duplicate bus for non school users..

It's ridiculous. It's a similar situation in my area although thankfully it doesn't affect us personally. Dh drives our dc to school because it's cheaper than the bus.

It's all been very last minute IMHO. We have not bought bus passes for our two teens as we did not know what was going to happen. There has been no clear guidance from the local council as to how they were going to run the bus service for schools (council said they were waiting on guidance from Govt). DH is going to do drop off/pick up and work later hours to accommodate as he works from home.

This week, just a week away from kids returning to school, the council have said that some buses used by school kids will become a dedicated bus service. On these buses there is no social distancing required, but all pupils must be seated and face front and wear masks. The buses serve 3 different secondary schools.

So we finally got some kind of resolution (which kind of makes a mockery of year group bubbles in a single school seeing as they're all mixed on the bus!), but it all seems very, very last minute.

where are you on the bus route, I imagine those nearest to the school (& ? most able to walk) won't be able to get on the bus because it will be 'full'

We are the last village on the route, but still 4.5 miles from the school!

And no, there is no earlier bus. This bus is routed to include various villages at school start and end times that it doesn't usually serve.

I have a disabled younger child with complex needs who currently has no school to return to, so taking my older child to school and back will be difficult understatement at best and perhaps completely impossibly depending on where my younger child's school ends up being.

The school have dodged the question twice now. The LA transport team aren't answering the phone or my email, and the bus company say they haven't been asked to run extra buses.

Would a call to local press get the council moving? Maybe a sad face picture?