Do any of you have a situation where you have one child who gets transport and other NT kids who need collecting from school?

[lottieandmia]

Dd1 (11) will be starting a new special school in September and the LEA will be providing transport so I will need to wait for her to be picked up in the morning and dropped off at home. The trouble is that I have two other children who need to be taken to school for 8.30am and picked up from school at 3.30pm.

My question is, if any of you have this situation how do you get around it?

I have this...depending on pick-up/drop off time, it can be a nightmare. At the moment, we've got an 8 am pick up and a 4pm drop, so it's OK (still a pain when the others want to play in the park after school, though!), but last year the drop off was at 3.30, and the little ones didn't get out till 3.20, at their school a ten minute drive away.

I'm afraid the teachers at DS2 & 3's school had to get used to me going in at prayer time and dragging my boys out early! Since the school they do to is the one that failed to cater for DS1, and they were spectacularly crap with him, they know it's their own fault, and daren't complain. In fact, the Headteacher pulled me to one side after she sent out a letter about late attendance and told me it didn't apply to us!

I would contact the transport people and say that you're happy for DD to stay on the bus later if it helps them- they usually get parents complaining about their children being on the bus too long, so they might be pleased to arrange the trip so your DD is first on/last off. Other than that, you might need to get the other school on side.

Ok, I won't know whether dd1 will be on a taxi or a bus (with other kids) until August - that would make a difference. I can't see my other children's school agreeing to an early pick up, especially in the case of the older child who is going into year 5 and the school is quite academic and expects results. Difficult isn't it? I'm glad it's not just me.

DD1 leaves home long before I need to get DD2 out to school and she only gets home around 4.15pm, so I am home in plenty of time after collecting DD2. In her case school is around 30 minutes drive away, but there are other children in her taxi who are picked up later/dropped off earlier and so she spends around an hour travelling and the time works out well for us. I was worried too about this before I found out what times she would be needing me to be home for her and thankfully it worked out well. My back up plan was after school club for DD2 until DD1 was home but not needed. The mornings she had to be in school for 8.30 so I knew that even with a direct taxi we would be fine on pick up.

Any way you can contact the transport team and see if they are able to give you more details about the taxi and see if anyone yet knows the relevant times for pick up and drop off?

I had this when dd was still in primary and it was a nightmare. Morning pick up was ok as Ds was collected well before dd had to leave, but home time was impossible as ds was dropped off between 3.30 and 3.40 and dd finished at 3.30 at a school at least 20 mins walk away (I don't drive and the bus wouldn't be any quicker).

Sometimes dd had an after school activity, sometimes I persuaded a friend to bring her half way and I then dashed out as soon as Ds was home to meet them but I ended up using afterschool club a lot although I wouldn't have otherwise needed it.

I asked the bus driver to pick ds up first (instead of last) and to drop him off last. This gave me an extra 20 min at either end of the day. Always felt guilty that ds was stuck on a bus for an extra 40 mins a day.

I know other parents who asked who were told that once the route was set it couldn't be changed because the route is set to use the least amount of fuel (the taxi firms have to put in a tender each year for the job so costing the route is really important).

Is there an advantage to him going by taxi?
Sounds like a logistical nightmare for you.
Would it not be easier to take him yourself or does that just create different problems?
Also don't expect taxi to turnup/ be on time. We had a child at our school who was picked up like this, it was a mess.

Ah I see, thanks for replies. Smartie - I wouldn't be able to take her myself and be able to get all children to school on time as the schools are very far apart. I suppose a lot depends on traffic. Ah well, I'll just have to hope that the pick up and drop off times are lucky I suppose! I certainly can't afford after school club every day - it would cost £15 a day for the two girls!

It is difficult - I have as this for five years.

Dd starts school at 8.00 so I get stressed but can be home for pick up without too much trouble.
The collect was more difficult. DDs pick up didn't clash initially. Then as it got later she had to have a year in late room.
Then she started doing after school activities so now she finishes at 6.00 three nights a week, 5.00 another night and so only goes to late room once a week . A couple of terms DS2 has had respite/overnight stuff at school so those mornings were fine obviously.
My point is it changes each year. Each year I assume it will be a nightmare but actually by juggling it always works out.

Talk to the driver and try and juggle pick up times to suit you.

DD1's bus passes our house twice, fortunately, so they can either drop her 2nd or last.

On the way in, I ask them to pick her up 2nd -that means she leaves at 08.20 and it gives me 15 minutes before I have to leave with DDs 2&3.

On the way back she's last drop, so she gets in at 4.10, because other wise she gets back at 3.30 and that's when DD2's school finishes, 2 miles away.

Ds used to be collected early enough so that I just had time to get dd to school so the mornings were ok, but in the afternoon there wasn't time for me to collect dd and then get home for ds's return.
It was solved by taxi agreeing to drop ds at dd's school instead of taking him to our house, so I would collect dd and wait for the taxi outside the gates, collect ds and take them both home in the car. It also meant that we could sometimes go to the nearby park after school so dd didn't miss out on playing with her friends, the only downside being that in the winter dd and I would often be waiting in the rain for quite a while. We had to wait in the same place so the taxi would know where to come but I wouldn't always be able to park the car near enough so we could wait in the dry.

Thanks everyone, this is obviously a common problem then. I guess I will have to wait until August to see what will happen.