Offered a place but now can't accept

[everydayisaschooltransportday]

It's the second week of term, and we've just been offered a place at our preferred school. It was oversubscribed and we lost our appeal in the summer term. So it goes without saying I was very pleased to receive the place.

However...😭

We missed the window to secure school transport and there are now no places on the school bus. It's going to be a massive struggle to work around this, and quite frankly, there will be days when it's just not possible. I've considered public transport, car share, taxis, begging the in-laws to help, but I genuinely can't see a reliable way to make it work consistently.

DS is getting on ok at the school he's at so far and has made friends. But my first preference for him is the other school and if I could, I would accept in a heartbeat, and can't believe I'll have to turn down a place at a school that I feel is right for him for the rest of his schooling...due to transport (which is likely a temporary issue for this year, until a spot opens up).

I don't really know why I'm posting. Perhaps someone else has a transport idea I haven't thought of? Or a kernel of wisdom that helps me accept it's just not going to happen?

😩😭

Forgive me for being dim, but I don't understand this school bus place system. If there is now a space in the school, it's because one kid left and your child got a place. So if school had (for arguments sake) say 1000 children, does this mean they provide a bus service for only 500? How would they calculate who needs it and who doesn't each year? That means if out of the 1000 who got in and 600 needed it that year, what did the other 100 do? Refuse the school offer?

What is the public transport service like? My 11 year old had to go to school on public transport to secondary and it worked out fine. I was uncomfortable with it, but she had a phone and always kept me up to date with where she was and how she was doing. Other children from the school got the same bus, so there was safety in numbers.

Could another option be a taxi on account? You get the same DBS-ed driver every day. My friend did this from being 7 when we were kids as her family couldn’t drive her in.

We're out of catchment, and it is a large school with many different bus routes from different areas going to the school. The child whose place we now have could have lived closer or on a different bus route.

It would be a commuter train and then a bus, approx hour in total. The bus is infrequent so if there were train delays (which there definitely will be, I know the train well!) I can see him really stuck. Also, he'd either get to school in time by a whisker (I'm talking 2 min) or get there about 45 mins early due to the bus timetables.

But tell me more about the taxi?

It might be too far for you (and so prohibitively expensive) but her parents had a contract with the local taxi company. The same driver was contracted to pick her up from the same address (their home) at the same time every morning and deliver her to school, and then pick up from school at the end of the day and return her home. They did this for years. This kind of thing:

singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/taxi-service-to-take-kids-to-primary-school/?utm_content=cmp-true

@CouldIBeHomeless thank-you, I'll look into it

Car pool- talk to parents who go to that school location with their kids. Not all go via bus because some parents go to work that direction. If you say you pay that will encourage them to agree. It is just a matter of observing if any familiar face gets out of the car in front of the school

Accept the place. Children move as families moves. Before Christmas the bus may have a space. Just call them, remind.

We might have option to take a different school bus as we could get him to that bus stop in time. Just not sure of the rules - would we be allowed to take up a space on a bus that's not closest to us? Does anyone familiar with school transport know the likely rules? I have, of course, emailed to ask and will follow up first thing Monday with a phone call to find out.

Both routes are a private agreement with school/bus company, not a local authority route, so hoping this gives us some flexibility (I know local authority routes go only by home address) 🤞🤞

My cousin has a similar issue with accepting a school in the next town and then moving house. I don't really understand it all, but can you apply to join that bus route in say a few months if kids leave, or at the start of the next year? Could you make it work till then?

What made that school the preferred choice over the one he's currently at?

Generally if there’s a space on the bus not being used for a catchment kid then you can pay for it. I know someone who drives their child 6 miles to the start of the for next town bus route as her son was being bullied at local high school

Thank-you, everyone. We've looked further into the public transport options and drove today to scope out the route. It looked quite manageable / straightforward and DS was happy to do it. So...with the deadline looming, we thought we'd manage well enough and have accepted the place

Great news OP, thank you for updating 😊

My son has a taxi to school. It’s funded by the council due to SEN but we organise it ourselves. We rang around and found a one-man firm so we know my son will only have one driver (we are able to do the odd day he can’t make it). A school fare is very popular as its regular work. It could be worth having a look?

just seen the update. That’s great. Hope it works out!