school bus

[greenpeople]

there is a possibility that my ds would be attending a school in dulwich and we are living in blackheath. he is 5 years old.

we are new to blackheath area and uk itself. the possibility of a place being offered by the school in dulwich came after we rented a place in blackheath. so we are stuck.

is it safe to put him on a school bus and is the travelling time long. could you please share your experience.

i read a thread about a kid who was dropped off by the school bus at an earlier time without his parents being told. thus i wonder is there any other things i should consider before putting him on the bus.

back home travelling on a school bus is very safe with a driver and an assistant onboard. is this the same here?

thanks

School buses would not usually have an assistant on them but there are usually regular drivers. They won't wait if you are not there to collect your child though. My siblings went on a school bus (and still do) from age 4 (rural area) and DD (8) goes on the bus for a long journey and it's all been fine.

My dds go on the bus (8 and 4) along with some neigbours.

The drivers are v nice, and one of them certainly wouldn't drop them if I wasn't thre to collect them.

However, once there was a new driver and he forgot to drop dd1 off, and went whizzing by.

Our drivers are emplyed by the LA, not the school.

We are rural and our dc (5 and 7) go to school on the school bus. It has a driver and an assistant - although the assistant is not there to 'help the children' but to 'protect' the driver. Our bus can be a rowdy place - ds has picked up a lot of bad language from the bus driver and I don't like the way that the children (including the new reception children) are just dropped off on the road outside the school so they have to make their own way into school and to their class. (OK for yr 1 onwards but it would be nice if reception children were met by a TA).
We haven't had any problems with dc being dropped off when there's no one home but I admit the bus is one of the reasons that we now have an au pair - in case my train is late and the dc have no one to let them into the house.
Having said that - I did the school run by car for dd's first few weeks and it was a nightmare drive and took over an hour just to get there and back, so it is very useful to have the bus option.

hi everyone,

thanks for sharing. i would definitely freaked out if the driver forget to pick up/drop off my kids.

ds wants to take the bus, guess i have to have a chat with the driver and do a few bus run myself via the public bus.

if it is too far, well i have to give up the place at dulwich.

just my luck, the school called just after we got the house in blackheath.

I suppose it depends on the school bus. My boys go on a school bus from our village to primary in local town. There is an assistant and all seats have seat belts. They do not leave children at bus stops unless a parent has given written permission for the child to walk home from bus stop - which is what my boys do.

It is fab. I don't drive so this is a lifesaver. Also, it only operates for an individual school. Children are escorted off the bus when they arrive ats chool and teachers walk them to the bus in the afternoon.