Using the bus (not school bus) to get to school

[holdtightandenjoytheride]

DD is starting secondary school in a couple of weeks and I need to organise her school bus pass.

She will be using a normal bus to get to and from school. I'm after a bit of advice/reassurance. Anyone else had experience of their just turned 11 child using a bus each day (she's not what you'd call street smart and the journey will take about 45 mins each way, but no changes needed). We will do a couple of journeys with her to make sure she knows where she's getting on and off, and I thought I could take photos of the bus stops on her phone so she can check if needs be.

Secondly, StageCoach state on their website that for a student to qualify for a Student Saver ticket they need a valid Student ID - surely her age and uniform will be enough and this only relates to sixth form students etc.? She's the only one from her school/local area going that I know of, so no one to ask...

Any words of wisdom you could share?

I don't think the uniform will be enough

It’s very normal where I am for children to use the public bus to get to a from school So I wouldn’t worry about that, as for her uniform being enough no it won’t be I’ve seen drivers turning away children in uniform who don’t have passes and also my nephew who was actually let on for free by the driver when he forgot his was then fined by a ticket inspector who got on a few stops, of course it’s down to the driver but plenty won’t let them on

A=and

Bus stops have names relayi g the closest street. You cpuld make a note of those so she can tell the driver where she needs to get off. Most are happy to stop where needed if asked when she gets on. Does she know how to use google maps if she gets lost?

I know all bus companies are different but check that it's a student saver that you need. On our buses 6th formers need student bus passes but younger pupils need the child rate bus pass, which doesn't require student ID.

Once she's fine it a couple of times she'll be fine. Even if you don't know them or they're not from your town/village, chances are there will be someone on the bus getting off at the same stop in the same uniform, tell her to keep an eye out for the uniform.

Also make sure she knows where to get the bus from to get home, is it the opposite side of the street to drop off, or somewhere totally different. And what time it leaves.
Make sure she knows it won't be the same stop she gets off at!

If you haven't already got some form of tracking on the phone, just turn on location sharing on Google maps. Then you can see where she is.

Round here the buses (and trains) are full of schoolchildren of all ages in the afternoons. In September you can always spot the Year 7s because they are so small and their brand new blazers are always too big, and their bags seem enormous in relation to the size of the child. By Christmas they've totally blended in with all the rest and you can't tell which are the Year 7s

Which is a long way of saying I'm sure she'll be fine. Eleven year olds have been catching buses to school for many decades.

What would be useful is for her to have a back up plan - for example if she misses her usual bus (or wants to go to Costa or the shops or the library with a friend), what time is the next one? If there's a problem with her usual bus, is there another route that brings her near enough to home to walk the rest of the way? Is she confident enough to ask a bus driver or other responsible adult for help if she needs it?

(You can also play 'Spot the Freshers' in Tescos, at the beginning of the academic year.)

Our council provides student travel cards - maybe yours does too?

I got the bus (no 68) to school when I was 5.

Thank you - this is all very reassuring. I got the train every day to school and survived with no problems, so I'm sure she'll be fine. In fact, I'm hoping it will encourage her to be a bit more confident and aware of herself and others as it's all been very 'cosy' up until now.

I'll contact the local bus company in the morning - a good suggestion to look for child specific tickets, although I can't find anything on the website.

It's the homeward journey I'm most nervy about as the bus only passes through our village in the morning, in the afternoon she'll have to get off at another and we will pick her up from there. As there are lots of clubs going on she will coming home at different times. My DH works not too far away from her school, so I think for the short term he'll be working from the office in case she needs to be scooped up.

We will get there! She seems unphased by it so I'll take her lead (and definitely install a tracking app on her phone!)

Thanks again.

She is plenty old enough to catch a bus. If she has a phone she also has the wherewithal to tell you she has missed it or it has been cancelled etc. We live on a county border and on one side the DC could get heavily subsidised bus fares. My advice would be to nail down the requirements for bus passes and to impress upon your daughter that she will pay the consequences if she loses it. My other piece of advice would be to impress upon them that the inconvenience secondary to kit being left on the bus should be born by whosoever has been careless enough to have left it behind.
Give her confidence over this, it is a nice rite of passage imo

@eddiemairswife

I got the bus (no 68) to school when I was 5.

Me too. But mine was the 172!

The fare was threepence (old money).

Oh, and assuming the buses take cash - London buses don't - it might be a good idea for her always to have enough cash on her to cover her fare, in case she should happen to forget or lose her bus pass and the driver won't let her on.

DD (entering Year 9) takes the bus every day (50 minutes). We did a practice run with her which I’d recommend doing before she started. She also has a print out of the bus times with her should she miss her regular bus in the afternoon.

Agree re tracking app. DDs didn’t work well until we increased her data allowance but as the bus has got stuck twice in 2 years thanks to bad parking in country lanes it’s been helpful.

In our county we have a students under 16 bus scheme so she has a bus pass for payment. I’d check your county council website. We have to apply in July though for ours.

Get the pass thing obv.

Here they get the tube and the bus.

I understand why you're nervous!

Likely other children from the same school will be on there anyway.

Do a dry run there and back with her.

The bus will soon become second nature to her, and she’s likely to meet other pupils on there going the same direction. It’s a good idea to do a couple of practice runs, both there and back.

Ds catches a bus to & from school & has since he was 11. In Sheffield you have to apply for a mega pass for child fares. Email school & they should give you the information you need.

You can also play 'Spot the Freshers' in Tescos, at the beginning of the academic year.)

That is fun.

There is also the Mums teaching their sons how to shop the day before they start.

After two months the biggest bags of pasta evert appear when they all want to cook together, they don't last.

My daughter has always caught the school bus but we don’t qualify for a bus pass.
She uses the stagecoach app instead and buys a weekly mega rider ticket each week, it’s linked to my debit card so handy if she forgets until the bus arrives and because it’s on her phone, she is never more than 20cm from it. The weekly ticket also gets her into the city at the weekend to meet up with friends.

@holdtightandenjoytheride when my dc started school and going on the bus I was very nervous and it didn't help in Autumn it gets dark...

My husband researched into apps and it has been my godsend- Life 360 free down load app where you can track her and feel comforted to know where she is and arrives safely.

Good luck for dc entering secondary school

Stagecoach may do a Termrider ticket for your area, designed for students aged up to 16 - you get a smart card, buy the ticket online and load it on for each term. Very straightforward. You don’t need a student ID.

The Stagecoach app is useful for tracking the bus in real time too.

Our DS had a similar journey that was new to him when he joined the school part way through Yr7. You’ll probably find kids get on the bus closer to the school and your DD will meet people that way.

Worth checking the County council site first before before anything else. In Kent for example, all children under 16 qualify for discounted travel, it’s not income related.

I've had a response from the bus company saying that they'll provide her with student ID if I send a photo of her with name and a address. Sounds straight forward and the ticket she would need is the reduced rate student pass.

A good point that others will probably get on as the bus gets closer to school, so she should start to recognise faces. I think we're getting there, she'll be Miss Independent in no time. Now need to start on the name tags...

@holdtightandenjoytheride I used a sewing machine, very quick with pre-cut labels and a zig-zag stitch, colour matched thread for each item. For PE kits I attached a carabiner clip to their school bag and when they chuck it all under the desk they clip the PE kit bag to the school bag meaning they don't leave it behind in a classroom.

Re the bus, if she stays behind after school it all looks very different in the dark especially if it is raining too. When you get on the bus together for the dummy runs check her phone to see if the map feature tracks the bus fairly accurately then she can check where she is.

Equip her with what to do if the bus doesn't show or if she gets off at the wrong stop. Also that she knows that you will always find her, you will swim oceans and walk through fire, that you won't leave her stranded on the street they tend to be a bit panicky when it happens the first time.

Are you on your local facebook group? Is there anyone else who will be making the same journey as her?

DS1 will be getting a non-school bus too. He's been at summer school this week and managing ok. Just need to make sure timings still work once traffic back to normal levels after the holidays. To be honest, given my memories of the school bus (admittedly longer ago than I care to acknowledge) the public bus seems far more civilised!

Not sure where you are but in Greater Manchester under 16s need an Igo card to travel at the concessionary fare even if they are blatantly under 16. They say to allow ten days for it to arrive but we handed our application in at the bus station and had it within 48 hours. You can get the card topped up with a weekly any bus, any time ticket (includes Stagecoach) so it saves faffing with change etc. Only thing I need to stress about now is DS losing the card...

@OnTheBenchOfDoom I think it's the after school clubs that could potentially cause issues as it will soon be dark and there are three different busses that head back in our direction going from different stops, so it will take her a while to get familiar with the app and know how to choose which will take her home quickest. She can be a bit of a daydreamer, but it's amazing how quickly she picks things up when she needs to! I don't know of any other kids going to her school that use the same bus route, but I'm hoping we'll learn of some once term starts.

@FairfaxHigh we're near Cambridge - we get an annual pass for a discount and if she loses it they replace it, hence the need for a student ID apparently. Let's hope it's not too frequent!