Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

How much do you pay for school transport?

40 replies

partystress · 05/03/2012 18:42

Need to do a quick and unscientific survey to find out if our council is telling porkies. Interested to know what you pay for school bus if you send your child to a school
(a) that is not your nearest but is a catchment school;
(b) that is out of your catchment;
(c) if you are in 11+ zone, to a school that is your nearest grammar, but not your nearest school.
If you could give a rough idea of distance too, that would be totally fab.
In the spirit of sharing, we are (c), £10 a week, 12 miles.
Many TIA.

OP posts:
shewhowines · 05/03/2012 19:03

£600 per year if out of catchment (even if you couldn't get into your catchment one due to oversubscription- Mightily unfair!)
Free if in catchment even though it could be 3 miles

Original poster
partystress · 05/03/2012 19:06

That's outrageous SWW! Was that the case even if you had put over-subscribed school as first choice? If so double whammy! Is the free in catchment regardless of distance? Thanks for replying Smile

OP posts:
missnevermind · 05/03/2012 19:09

Not quite getting your question.
Bog standard childs bus pass £21.00 per month
Not school buses, public transport all the way.

Original poster
partystress · 05/03/2012 19:14

Thanks MissNM. Our council is about to introduce charging to get to grammar school on the grounds that there is a secondary school nearer. They are allowed to do this by law, but there seems to be some suggestion that the charge will go towards the costs of transporting those they do have to transport, rather than simply covering the costs. Children using public buses to cross the county boundary (ie go out of catchment) are paying about £8 a week, but we are reliant on school bus because no public bus gets to school on time and will have to pay £10 (the school is in our catchment area, and our nearest grammar, just not our nearest school).

OP posts:
notforlong · 05/03/2012 19:34

£465, £422 and £362 for spring summer and autumn term. Not good.

bruffin · 05/03/2012 19:34

I just paid out £180 for half a term for both my dcs to go by train to school. This is an 8 minute train journey. We don't really have catchment areas, but there are a lot of schools closer, so our choice to send them there.

The unfair thing is that DS is 16 and in yr11 so still in compulsory education but has to pay full fare on the train. Once he gets into 6th form he can get a discount of a 1/3 off the fare. It doesn't make any sense at all!

Original poster
partystress · 05/03/2012 20:00

OMG notfor! Is that one child? Over £1200 pa? Are you Outer Hebrides sending child to Cornwall????

Bruffin that seems mad - can't get student card til 16? Bummer if you are a September birthday!

OP posts:
BackforGood · 05/03/2012 20:05

Same here as MissNeverMind. If you go to school on the bus, then you buy a weekly / monthly / termly travelcard from the travel company (or pay daily) - it's nothing to do with the education department. This is in a City. From memory, I think there was some ruling that if you could only get a place at a school more than 3 miles from you (unlikely in a City this size) then they had to provide a bus pass, but if you chose to go to a further school (this would include a grammar) then that's your choice, so your consequence.

muddymooncups · 05/03/2012 20:09

Free at the moment.
From Sept. School bus, 6 miles ( not to closest school but faith), will cost £530 per year. per DC.

mumblechum1 · 05/03/2012 20:10

Ours is £1100 pa for a four mile trip.

I don't pay it, I drive him instead as I often go past his school on the way to work.

ByTheSea · 05/03/2012 20:12

Over £800 / year for DD1 to go by school bus to nearest grammar school (superselective so no catchment). The parents of the children bussed (on the same bus) to the catholic secondary next to the grammar were paying about 1/3 of that, but I think that's stopping now.

bruffin · 05/03/2012 20:13

Both dcs are September birthdays. Ds has a young persons rail card but can't use it at the time to get to school as his fares are not high enough.

ByTheWay1 · 05/03/2012 20:15

£11.50 per week to our catchment area school - just under 3 miles

muddymooncups · 05/03/2012 20:15

sorry Blush should of read for both DC. or £350 each.

Original poster
partystress · 05/03/2012 20:26

Thanks all. Looks like despite the unfairness of charging for a grammar school purely on the basis of postcode Angry, cost-wise we might be getting away lightly. At least for now. Have no doubts once charging is established we will become a cash cow...

OP posts:
roisin · 05/03/2012 20:38

I don't quite get your questions.
My boys go to school in the next town (by choice), it's 4miles by public transport. The bus currently costs about £450 per year, but it's gone up a lot in the last 3 years and no doubt will continue to do so.

Bunbaker · 05/03/2012 20:47

It's free for us.

We live in the catchment area, but far enough away from the school (4 miles) to get free transport. It is a huge school in a small market town and there aren't enough service buses to transport all the children so there are dedicated school buses to transport the children from all the villages. All children under 16 also get a travel pass that entitles them to free bus travel after 9 am on all buses in the metropolitan borough.

Original poster
partystress · 05/03/2012 20:49

Situation is we live at the edge of our county, which still operates 11+. Our nearest secondary school is more than 3 miles away, so council have to provide free transport. Where we live, the secondary is nearer than the grammar. In the past, council have also provided free transport to the grammar. Now that will stop IF you have a secondary school nearer to you than the grammar, which vast majority of rural residents do, just by virtue of the fact that the grammars are concentrated in the town centre, whereas secondaries are more spread around outskirts. In other words, if you live nearer to a grammar than a secondary you will get free transport whichever school you go to, but if you live nearer to a secondary, even though you have passed the 11+ you have to pay for grammar.

They are using the ACORN database to back up their claim that most grammar school children live in wealthy areas. Leaving aside the fact that it is a database designed to help target mailshots, within a postcode there are big differences in 'wealth' and if you price out via transport the squeezed middle, grammar schools will indeed become places of privilege...

OP posts:
RustyBear · 05/03/2012 20:58

I switched DS to the train after the school bus went up to just under £1000 a year for a grammar school 8 miles away - but that was 11 years ago, so £10 a week sounds pretty cheap to me.

HSMM · 05/03/2012 21:00

Out of catchment £800 per year for 1 child

Milliways · 05/03/2012 21:08

DS goes to the nearest Grammar, but it is not our catchment school so we buy the bus pass at £110(ish) every 3 months. (Needs to change buses in town). It was our choice to allow him to sit the exam so we can't moan about the transport - some kids travel in for miles by train and bus.

If you go to the catchment school the school bus fee is more than the travelcard for the local buses, and you are restricted to the school bus - paying for a travelcard means DS can use the bus evenings and weekends.

thetasigmamum · 05/03/2012 21:38

£900 a year. Grammar school, super selective (no catchment). It's about a 25 mile journey.

lurkinginthebackground · 05/03/2012 23:59

Each dc pays £1.10 per day.
It is our catchment school but we live less than 3 miles away (as the crow flys).

Banter · 06/03/2012 07:44

Although it probably doesn't apply in this case, those who are low incomes qualify for free transport to their three nearest secondary schools and they are less than 6 miles away.

Banter · 06/03/2012 07:47

Or even ...

Although it probably doesn't apply in this case, those who are on low incomes qualify for free transport to their three nearest secondary schools and if they are less than 6 miles away.