To send a strongly worded email to school regarding the bus service?

[Acunningruse]

DS has just started in Y7 and is on a school bus service provided by the school (NOT the Council) for which we pay £1000 a year.

Not once but twice this week the bus has failed to turn up, having broken down, leaving children at the bus stop for over an hour and 15 minutes before a replacement arrived.

I am absolutely raging and probably need to tone down my first draft 🙈 but AIBU to complain to school about leaving 11 year olds unaccompanied at a busy roadside for over an hour? Not to mention lost learning time etc.

There is no point in a strongly worded email if you mean it's going to be patronising or stroppy. Don't write it when you're angry.

You'll get a better response if it's calm, factual and has an outcome.

Complain but there's not much the school can do if the bus breaks down. If it becomes too much a problem the school might not bother with a bus service. In which case you have to find another way of getting your child to school.

It really depends upon the reasons why they're late.

We've had a few bus breakdowns and major accidents on the motorway, causing a backlog for all other roads, Inc the bus route.

If they're consistently late because the bus driver overslept, then I'd complain/ make enquiries to the school AND the bus company. Being late to school is detrimental to the kids education.

Sending an angry email won't achieve anything. Sending a rational email, registering your dissatisfaction with the situation will have more impact. Before you draft it think about what you want to say and what as a parent you expect to happen in these circumstances and how you think the coach company/school could handle it. The school/coach company may not agree with your suggestions or be able to do anything about them but at least you will have tried. If you're not satisfied then you will have a decision to make for next year and can look into more reliable alternatives.

As you are uncontactable at work, you need to nominate an emergency contact who usually can be reached and ensure that is the first person they call (or in circs like these, it’s probably a text)

It seems they mucked up the contacting arrangements by trying to reach you instead of the person who is likely to be available, so a fairly blunt letter pointing that out might be indicated. You don’t want notifications to go wrong again.

But a bus breaking down? These things happen. A replacement was sent in a reasonably timely manner. I’m not sure what else could be done

I can see it’s had an undue impact on you (perhaps because it’s 2 on the bounce whilst your DS is a new joiner). But at the moment it’s still squarely in the category of bad luck, so the only thing to need attention is making sure that the emergency contact is correctly recorded

You left him unattended at the bus stop, not the school.

Wow. So £13 per bus journey if he's at school 39 weeks per year? £26 per day? You'd expect a good service for that!

Something isn't quite right with your maths there. The OP spends £1000 per year. A state school is open for something like 190 days per year, so that's approx £5.26 per day. 2 trips per day (morning & afternoon) makes it £2.63 per journey. Looks like you got the decimal point in the wrong place.

Its twice in a week though.... not once in a blue moon.
Service the bus appropriately? buy a new one??

Yes you are unreasonable. By all means write an email but make it reasonable explaining what you’d like the school to do differently in the future if this happens again. Not sure what they can do about the bus breaking down but maybe an email to let you know? Member of staff driving out to supervise? Are you sure these things didn’t happen before you kick off? Your child’s in year 7 don’t embarrass yourself a few weeks in.

I can understand this being really frustrating, especially paying as you do. I can only say that as any vehicle can break down at any point, this is always a possibility, and it sounds like school have organised replacement as quickly as is possible and also informed parents - which I understand you arent able to check phone at work. But it does seem that theyve done what they can so i do echo what other posters say in what else do you think they should do? (unless it becomes a regular occurence)