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Secondary education

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

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Original poster

Secondary school bus - wwyd

101 replies

MadamPatti · 24/03/2017 15:14

My son is in year 7 and gets a school bus to school. It's about a 40 min journey. It's normally utter chaos on the bus. He hates it but has no other choice. The behaviour seems to have got worse lately. For about the last four weeks there has been a water fight on the way home, Probably started as part of the bottle flip challenge, but with no lids.

I monitor the situation as best I can, my son and his friend won't join in and try to discourage others.

Yesterday, he was hit by several flying bottles, and when he stood up to get off at his stop he fell over on all the water. Another older child said if he hadn't got up by the time he needed to get off, he would stomp on him. Son arrives home in tears, not for the first time.

I just don't know what to do. I am aware that kids of this age need to sort things out themselves. Also, I wouldn't class what goes on as bullying, as none of it is personally directed at him. Yesterday he was just in the way. Virtually everyone on the bus seems to be involved. Son can be a bit serious, with some tendencies to exaggerate, and if he knows he's in the right he refuses to back down.

Are these essentially low level behaviour problems sufficiently serious to inform school?? He's not being bullied in my opinion. I think that at secondary they need to learn to sort things out for themselves a bit more and I don't want to overreact. WWYD??

Thanks

OP posts:

FreshHorizons · 25/03/2017 09:32

I have to stop posting as I am going out but OP - don't be frightened to make a fuss. It is most definitely the schools responsibility and easily resolved. Threatening to take away a bus place does it.

FreshHorizons · 25/03/2017 09:33

Why involve the police when the answer is so simple?!
You do have a wet Head!

Astro55 · 25/03/2017 09:33

user1490123259

There are no bad schools - only bad behaviour polices and bad management

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:34

It is most definitely the schools responsibility and easily resolved. Threatening to take away a bus place does it.

No it isn't and no it isn't.

GreenGinger2 · 25/03/2017 09:34

Jesus excuses,excuses. Does school have this stance on all safeguarding,behaviour and bullying issues?

mycavitiesareempty · 25/03/2017 09:34

School can take action and I would fully expect them to take action. "Not my resposibility" just sounds jobsworth-y. I don'm mean teachers on buses etc. I mean sending letters home and withdrawing transport.

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:36

excuses,excuses. Does school have this stance on all safeguarding,behaviour and bullying issues?

not after school, because it is out of their control.

What don't you get?

You couldn't do it, you couldn't solve it,

I'd like to see you try - I'd give you less than a week before calling the police back in to control the school buses.

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:38

I mean sending letters home and withdrawing transport.

who sends what letter whom to whom? saying what? who writes it? who signs it? What transport is withdrawn from whom? How?

All your trite little answers give no real solutions in the real world, just a snappy little sound bite from someone who couldn't do it themselves.

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:38

You're making a right meal of this, user.

Bus company contacts school.
Senior staff speak to the users of that bus.
Service withdrawn if behaviour doesn't improve.

GreenGinger2 · 25/03/2017 09:38

Op I too have to go out,do log and report. Do it in writing or e-mail though so you have evidence that you did. Most heads and other parents would be very greatful if you did.

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:41

You're correct, user. I haven't done it. My DS's School have. So it is possible.

Iirc the letter said behaviour was bad on a particular service, could we speak to our children about it and make it clear if it continued the culprits would be removed from that service and have to find alternative arrangements.
I believe one boy was removed from the service for continuing to arse about.

Emphasise · 25/03/2017 09:41

One of DS1's classmates was excluded because of something that happened in the school bus and the headteachers phoned me about something stupid that Ds2 did on the bus. I dont know if it's really their responsibility and I'm sure they could argue that it's not as it happened outside school but ime a well managed school would deal with it. It will be affecting children's wellbeing in school too.

Op, is there a regular service bus hecould use? I felt initially that the school bus was "safer" but actually the service bus is cheaper and offers more flexibility for after school clubs/visiting friends etc.

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:43

You're making a right meal of this, user.

no I'm not, I'm telling you how it is and how it has been for very many years. Schools do what they can, but bus behaviour is beyond what schools can control. It is monitored and controlled by the police

Bus company contacts school

with cctv, otherwise there is no evidence, anyway.

Senior staff speak to the users of that bus

hours of time for teachers who don't have the time to spare, unlikely to identify everyone, or even most people, there will be days of disputes about who did what, when, to whom, on which bus....
.
Service withdrawn if behaviour doesn't improve.

completely outside of school remit.

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:45

this is pretty much an empty gesture, has no impact

I believe one boy was removed from the service for continuing to arse about.

" you believe?" - I doubt it, wouldn't in any case be legal.

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:46

On the contrary, user. It is perfectly legal and set out in the contract we sign when we apply for the annual bus pass. The boy makes his own way to school now.

Astro55 · 25/03/2017 09:47

You would hope the school had a decent relationship with the bus company that serves the school - so they work as a partnership and don't blame each other - with an outcome to suit both school bus company and children in their care

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:50

It had the impact of stopping the bad, disruptive and dangerous behaviour.
Feel free to disbelieve me, but why would I make it up? That would be an odd sort of pastime for a Sat morning

Standards at the school are high. If you are wearing the uniform you are representing the school.
I suppose if you have a shit SMT those standards are not going to be upheld and teachers are going to throw their hands in the air and expect the police to sort it out.

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:50

On the contrary, user. It is perfectly legal and set out in the contract we sign when we apply for the annual bus pass. The boy makes his own way to school now.

no it isn't and this boy is the one you didn't know if you even believed in 2 minutes ago, not you know how he gets to school?

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:52

I suppose if you have a shit SMT those standards are not going to be upheld and teachers are going to throw their hands in the air and expect the police to sort it out.

so criminal behaviour is the responsibility of SMT and teachers throwing their hands up in the air???

no, criminal behaviour is the responsibility of criminals.

This sort of attitude is exactly WHY the country is being crippled by a teacher shortage.

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:52

I think a large County Council School Transport dept knows a little more than you about this subject, user.

'I believe' is a turn of phrase. Apologies if my use of it exceeded your capacity to understand.

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:54

So glad my DS doesn't go to a school where bottle flipping with the lid off is seen as a police matter.

user1490123259 · 25/03/2017 09:56

large County Council School Transport will know the identity of individuals using their service, and can take steps to exclude, in exactly the same way a school does, with the correct paper trail, and within legal constraints, and adhering to equal opportunity legislation, etc.

'I believe' is a turn of phrase - no it means you don't know, but nice wriggle

Emphasise · 25/03/2017 09:56

If behaviour is the reason teachers are leaving that is down to SMT. I work in numerous schools across all social spectrums. You can tell as soon as you walk in how well managed a school is. Behaviour on the bus is simply an extension of that.

Topseyt · 25/03/2017 09:58

Our secondary school does do the hauling in of kids if necessary. They even have admin staff who deal with bus related issues, and others who deal with the students themselves.

That is made very clear on forms signed at the start of Year 7 by both students and their parents. Warnings would be given to children and parents, and places on the bus can be withdrawn.

OP, you are right to contact the school. Also contact the bus company. Ask both what their strategies are for dealing with this sort of shit. They do often have to work together.

Outside of school but on a school contract bus may well be rather a grey area and of course possible to argue that it isn't schools responsibility because parents DO have ultimate responsibility for the behaviour of their own children. That is perfectly true.

However, these children will not have gone home and announced their behaviour to their parents. They need to be identified and their parents contacted, and surely the obvious place to get that help is school, working in conjunction with the bus company and following up any serious issues if raised by other parents or even occasionally other students.

Not wrong to contact them at all.

Saucery · 25/03/2017 09:58

Phew, so you do understand that children can be excluded from school buses for bad behaviour. Hurrah! And without having to call the police.

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