School bus - would you be happy with these safety arrangements for your 4.5 year old?

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We have just moved to a more rural area and are lucky enough to have a school bus which runs from our house to the school. I have 3 under 5 year olds which makes the school run fairly busy, like many people I'm sure.

It's also difficult for us to get in with icy conditions as we don't have four wheel drive whereas the school bus is ruggedly equipped for such weather.

The return journey from school I am happy with - the teacher escorts the pupils getting the bus to a shelter near the gate and they are then escorted onto the bus. The bus drops off outside our house so we will see it arriving and can go straight out.

I'm more worried about the morning run. The bus would pick up from outside our door so we would see children safely onto bus. However at the other end the children are left to find their own way through the school grounds from the road. THe school has said they would keep an eye on the bus arriving and help to make sure that the younger pupils get to their classroom and that the older children help to make sure the little ones get into the school.

Am I being overly precious to be worried about a 4.5 year old finding their way from the road outside school to their classroom? It's not a busy main road but it is a crowded cul de sac the school is on and there are lots of parents in a hurry pulling out without looking. They are dropped literally at the gates but there is no railing around the gates to stop them wandering back onto the road. Would you be happy with this set up?

Am I being too untrusting of the driver, school, other parents who seem happy with this arrangment, other kids etc..

Any thoughts gratefully recieved.

I think if it is an established arrangement it sounds fine
the teachers will look out for the bus
at our school the caretaker mans the front gate anyway so if they have someone at the gate they will see the bus and keep an eye on it
for an extra precaustion you could befriend another user of the bus who has a yr 6 child on it maybe and ask them to ask there child to keep an eye out for your little one?

I think if there was someone ie a caretaker standing there all the time I would be happy with it.

Staff are around but it's not a formal arrangement. They'll often wander off to sort out other kids further down on the playing fields etc - so they're not always there every time the bus arrives...

It's a kind of "what if" worry - what if the one time that week there were no teachers about one of the kids wandered out in the road and got hit by a car squeezing past the bus in a hurry..

maybe the driver waits to see them walk in?

perhaps you could go on the bus the first day of school to see how it all works?

I've been driving in the last few weeks and keeping an eye on bus. Driver stays in bus while kids get off. Good idea re me going on bus but sadly no room.

. DH doesn't see the problem but our kids are such daydreamers they could quite easily wander out onto the road..

I think it sounds fine. the kids will soon learn their way.

Thanks cumbria. Maybe I need to start off with return journey and see how it goes.

I made the mistake of searching archives for school bus safety and now have horrible visions of no-one helping put their seatbelts on/children being dropped down the road etc..