AIBU to be concerned about young children on council-provided school bus with no adult supervision?

[Gertrudethechicken]

My DD is 5 and has recently started travelling to/from school on a council-provided school bus. There is a driver, but apparently no passenger assistant/chaperone on the bus. Yesterday she told me that an older boy on the bus tried to spill his juice over her. She said he was deliberately trying to do it, rather than it being an accident.
I know children messing around on buses isn’t exactly unusual, and I’m not suggesting this particular incident is some huge safeguarding crisis. But it has made me think about the fact that she’s only 5, travelling with considerably older children, and there doesn’t appear to be anyone supervising them other than the driver.
The driver obviously needs to concentrate on driving, so realistically they can’t be watching what’s happening further back on the bus.
I’m wondering whether I’m being unreasonable to think that a bus carrying 5-year-olds alongside older children should have some form of adult supervision? She’s my first so fully prepared to be told I’m being precious or over the top.

My own experience has had a similar effect on me. It was bad enough as at 11. Even now I swear my heart rate goes up whenever I'm on the top deck of a bus.

I do understand that things are very different if you live rurally and long bus journeys to school can be a normal part of it.

Because she’s entitled to free school transport, and because we both have to get to work

Yes, we are driving her in now.

It's very common in rural areas - for those saying they wouldn't put their kids on a school bus so young, it's just normal practice and what everyone does. People don't drive their kids to school as they have work to get to, often in the opposite direction to school.

OP you need to bring this up with both the school and the LA transport team. Contact them any time there is an incident, name the perpetrator and ask how they will ensure your DD is safe on the bus. Also, get your DD to sit right at the front near the driver.

My DC have been through this, it's not nice and you have to nip it in the bud when you can.

YANBU in the slightest in terms of being worried about it, I would be too, in fact, I'd never let such a young child travel on an unsupervised bus. However, a supervisor costs money, so this is a case of the Council compromising safety and the safeguarding of the children because there's no sufficient budget.

Our service was simply stopped by the bus drivers refusing to do it anymore.

Well who would pay for the extra adult on all these school buses in all the areas they are used? And how would the adult get transport back to their car or other transport needed omce they reached the school?

How would it all work? I doubt it is part of drivers job description even of there were 2 drivers on board

Our school minibus rural area has an escort & driver.
Can you contact your local authority transport team and explain the situation.

My teenage dd was physically assaulted on the bus. Just the driver ..
His punishment was he wasn't allowed on it the next day. 1 day.
Absolute shambles...

Or deal with issues by identifying the bully and talking to the school to ensure the child and their parents are warned that they will lose their bus place.

At the village school that my DS went to (many moons ago) the bus bringing children from the next village didn't have a chaperone on. However, I know that at some point after he left Primary, a Chaperone was introduced, but it was a TA from the school who just happened to live in the village that the bus served. So I'm not sure what the cost of that would have been (but the TA definitely could drive and had a car, so it wasn't just done as a convenient way for them to get to work!)
I know there had been concerns about certain pupils on the bus back in DS's day so I'm guessing this was why the school sorted this arrangement.

I drove school buses for a bit, in the late 00s. Just me and up to 50 kids. They were supposed to wear seat belts, and up to age 14 it's the driver's responsibility. I had to walk up and down the aisle to visually check before driving. Then, once I was driving, check in the mirror to see if anyone had stood up - if you could see their heads in the mirror you knew they weren't strapped in. It was a rotten job.

In the 90s I went to school on a school bus myself (lived rurally, very few kids were driven to school by parents at that time, and those who were got teased mercilessly for it) it was only 11 miles but it took 45 minutes and all sorts of things happened.

I have never seen /heard of an escorting adult on a school bus (although I often wished there was when I had to drive one!) Basically, it would be a beyond shit job, with minimal pay, don't think many people sane enough to do it, would want to?

Lots of kids travel to school by bus here and I've never heard of a chaperone. The buses take both primary and secondary school children.

It’s very low priority compared to SEN provision.
I would simply report the boy to the headteacher so they can have a word with the boy & his parents.

God, mine too. It was awful.

We used to have full scale fights break out. No one ever did a thing.

I wouldn't put a 5 or 6 year old on a bus with a bunch of unsupervised older kids.

Some kids are little shits.

Mine get on the bus once they go to secondary at 11 and that's bad enough!

Ask the school for the older pupils to think about peer supervisors on the bus/
Complain to the council (who dont have any money)
Find out the school the boy goes to and tell them about the incident. I dont think any school will be impressed with a boy bullying a 5 year old girl.

There’s no way i would allow this for my 5 year old. I wouldn’t allow my 7 year old. I think you might have to take her yourself. There should definitely be a chaperone on the bus.

My eldest had a full on fight with a bully (defending her younger sister) and nothing was done about it when i complained.

This was council funded country bus taking village kids to small town secondary.

This was secondary but they used to sell drugs at the back of the top deck on my old school bus.

You get DD to identify the child, if she has the first name the school should know who it is by which bus they are on.

Then you make it the schools issues to stop the bullying and you keep all of it in writing. The school can speak to the child and their parents.

It’s unlikely the first time this pupil has bullied.

This is just silly. You know the driver can't easily deal with any problems that arise amongst the passengers, so if a child becomes ill or assaults another it's going to be a major problem. The potential costs arising out of an accident or a child whose serious illness has gone unnoticed would be way above the costs of an escort.

As for "take them yourself" - how do parents do that for schools over statutory walking distance if they don't or can't drive and there is no public transport, or if they have other children to take elsewhere, or if they have to get to work to keep a roof over the family's head?

If your DD doesn’t know the name you wait with her where the kids get off bus and ask her to point them out and then you ask the the child their name and/or follow them in etc.

She me of my kids went to a school where you could elect for private bus transportation. These school buses took from kindergarten (5yo) to leaving (18yo), and ranged from full size coach to minibus depending on where you lived and how many on that route. There was only ever the driver, never another adult except for a few instances where teachers cars had broken down/been in accident and they lived along a route and were given special permission to join a bus until car was fixed. I never heard of any issues.

Bus chaperones are quite common though, it’s not a new or impractical idea.
My DCs always had one on the primary school bus. There’s still a chaperone on the bus now.

OP if your DD can name this person tell the school about it. Bullies should have their bus rights revoked.