Bus pass cost for 6th form

[GoodnightJude1]

My DD has chosen to go to the 6th form attached to the Secondary school she’s attended for the last 5 years.
She will be getting the same bus there and back as she has done in the past, although now we’ve had to apply for a ‘spare seat pass’ this allows her to travel on the school bus to 6th form as long as there is space.

We have to re apply for the bus pass each term (with no guarantee of her getting a seat)

Thankfully, I’ve just received an email saying there is a spare seat on the bus and to follow the link to confirm and pay…..

£265!!!!!! per term!

Is it just me or does this seem a lot of money per term? Obviously I’ve paid it and will continue to do so but it seems expensive!
Just wondered what other people are paying? Maybe I’m just behind the times…..

That is so expensive. We are in a London. 16-19 free bus travel. One option would have involved train which would have set me back quite a bit

£1300 for our catchment school. We WFH so could have driven DS but he is moving on to a school in a different county and can use a young persons bus pass so only £1 each way on public buses.

The charge has almost doubled since last year. It was a shock for those whose DC are staying at the catchment school. Unless they looked up the costs before deciding on post-16 moves they would have been unaware because the school don't get involved in transport issues.

What a perverse situation that there will be DC unable to remain at the same school they've attended for years for further education that is compulsory because they've had to move to a more affordable option.

I paid £507 for dd’s bus pass this term, she’s year 13 and last year, the year 12’s finished the last week of June for work experience and other stuff, but I still had to pay the full terms bill. Only two more to go!

London here too. 16-19 year olds have free bus travel and reduced train costs too after paying for an initial £20 Zip card. The benefit of a joined up travel policy from City Hall in London and the same policy applied too by Andy Burnham in Manchester. Way too many private bus companies elsewhere completely massively overcharging.

I heard yesterday that DS's old school are concerned about post-16 travel. The prohibitive cost and lack of availability is starting to affect sixth form applications.

We are in a fairly rural area so not much chance of a city hall-style joined up transport/education policy here sadly.

£352 per term here.

Considering getting her a bicycle for summer

It’s ridiculous. It’s £103 a month for DD. Because she is an older one from Y13 that will go up as she will no longer be able to get a 16/17 railcard. Grrr

It is going to be cheaper for her to drive which I think is bloody ridiculous!!!!!!!

I paid £85/month for DS a few years ago. So roughly the same. Then in the March, I had an email to say they'd applied for some funding for us because of our post code (deprived area) and we were awarded some money. So I got most of it back.
I then had to pay the following year and got most of it back again.
It was like a mini savings fund 😂

Annual bus pass for my daughter was over 1k per year!! It’s cheaper for her to pay daily with the £3 bus cap so I £30 a week for her to get to college!!

Some 6th forms offer financial help towards bus costs, I’m a single parent so got a bursary.

We pay >£700/year, and have had to pay throughout the whole of secondary school. It’s ridiculous.

And this is funded by the government in Scotland.

Good grief!! Mine went to a specialist college that was, admittedly, fairly remote - he had the choice of a free bus or a train pass that cost us £18 a year. (This was last year and the year before).