School transport times.

[Cerialkiller]

My older child has been granted a place at a local state school which has a special unit. It's only a few miles away but because of the distance we were granted transport to and from school daily.

The transport company have just confirmed routes yesterday including times of pick up from home and school before and after school.

Here's the issue. The time they have quoted for our home pick up, is slap bang in the middle of when I'm taking my other child to school drop off (different school 10/15 minutes away.

They are picking him up at 8:35 and my daughter's school gates open 8:30 and close 8:45.

To make matters weirder, the taxi company said that they have a school drop off time for son's school of 8:50. Their gates open 8:30-8:45 same as the other school.

I've queried it with the taxi company who say their hands are tied as they have a very fixed contract with the council. The council have responded to my query with something vague, they are looking into it.

As things stand I will have to decide which of my children make it to school on time. Probably DD as otherwise I will have to drop them both off at two different schools in opposite directions.

Can anyone give me their experience of their taxi service they use? Are the times quoted a worst case scenario? Is it likely to be earlier? If the taxi arrived even ten minutes earlier then it would work for us but they seems very inflexible.

Annoyingly, this clash was the main reason I applied for the service in the first place and assurances about access to this service was what made me make the jump to changing schools.

This isn’t an unusual situation, I’m afraid.

Even though the gates open 8:30-8:45, what time does the school day for those DC in the unit begin? This isn’t always the same time as the time for pupils in the main school. And often there is a soft star to allow for transport.

If there is more than one pick up, you could ask the taxi driver if they will do it in a different order, but it may not be possible &/or they may not be willing to if contracted otherwise.

Can DD go to school slightly early? Either by arrangement with her school or by going to breakfast club. Or look at a childminder to take DD or, if it would work for DS, someone to stay with DS until collected.

There is a breakfast club yes but I feel like I don't see much of them anyway but it might be an option even if it's a faff as having to take ds too then him back home for taxi pick up, they charge too so feel like I have to subsidise the 'free' taxi service.

There are other, softer consequences too. DD has a lovely group of friends and I'm getting closer to the parents and we chat and catch up and if I'm rushing around with no time to spare then I'll miss out on all that too.