School Transport. Applications & Renewals

[Amber]

From Glos website:

Are you entitled to financial help with transport to school or college?
When choosing a school or college you should think about how your child will get there.
Most children and young people do not qualify for help with transport and you will have to make sure you can meet the costs of getting your child to school throughout their education.

We can only help with the cost of transport in certain situations to children who live in Gloucestershire and attend a maintained school or academy. If we can't offer financial help you may be able to pay for a place on a school bus.

I see what you are saying, scary . I suppose some people looking in from the outside might say well Bucks is one of the most affluent counties in the country, with some of the best schools and highest house prices, and many parents choose GS as an alternative to going private so are saving a King's ransom anyway. These people, whoever they might be, would say that as long as there was provision in place to help those in genuine need, then public funds would be better spent elsewhere.

However, I can see that if you have been used to financial assistance and chose a school presuming it would always be there, then sudden withdrawal of that feels unfair.

Sorry if this is controversial.

[scary mum]

It's not controversial at all. We are fortunate in that we can afford it. If there was no free transport it would almost be fairer. As it is, the very people who should be given a leg up by the system may well choose for their DC's to not sit for the 11 plus because if they go to an Upper they will get free transport, but if they pass for a GS will pay hundreds of pounds each year. It's not fair on them.

[southbucks3]

The govt web site does say that all children in uk are entitled free transport to their nearest suitable school if over 3 miles away. This is the minimum that bucks now subscribes to.

Unfortunately this includes schools that you are not in admission catchment for and that are over subscribed, but geographically closer as the crow flies and also any dodgy free school that is set up in an old air raid shelter and run by Martian worshipping bunny rabbits.

[kenyancowgirl]

SB3 you should come with a government health warning....I just snorted tea with that one!!

[ToadMum]

The govt web site does say that all children in uk are entitled free transport to their nearest suitable school if over 3 miles away. This is the minimum that bucks now subscribes to.

Unfortunately this includes schools that you are not in admission catchment for and that are over subscribed, but geographically closer as the crow flies and also any dodgy free school that is set up in an old air raid shelter and run by Martian worshipping bunny rabbits.

Apologies for introducing a note of flippancy here, but should your locality acquire a free school run by the worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, please do not publicise this, as DD would insist on the Toad family upping sticks and relocating and I really, really hate moving house

[southbucks3]

Thank you toad mum, I have now enlightened myself (thank you wickie). I am fairly sure that there will be no free buses to a free church of the spaghetti monster school in the bucks villages in the immediate future. The vast majority of south bucks resident mums refuse to admit the existence of any carbohydrates so would immediately petition the priminister against such a proposal. He would obviously oppose such a school too, as he has a substantial, all be it temporary holiday home in the area and wouldn't want his wife or children to fall prey to the temptation of pasta.

Honestly though...and back to serious. Some families will have to pay £570 per child to attend the local grammar, multiply that by three boys and you have lost one month of the average salary. Parents will definitely be dropping kids by car!

[Guest55]

Even worse - some families will have to pay £570 per child to attend the local grammar or upper if they don't want the aforementioned free school.

[hermanmunster]

Apologies for introducing a note of flippancy here, but should your locality acquire a free school run by the worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, please do not publicise this, as DD would insist on the Toad family upping sticks and relocating and I really, really hate moving house

at least the uniform would be cheap http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... cture.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MrsH173015]

Amber

National legislation states that secondary school children are entitled to free transport if they are more than 3 miles from their nearest school. I can only assume if you are writing a cheque that your children are either less than 3 miles from school, are over 16, or are privately educated?

I would like to point out to the 'some people' mentioned in your second post that we are not all super rich. And we are not all 'saving a kings ransom' in private fees, as this was not an option for most of us. In order to qualify for free transport you have to be in receipt of particular levels of benefits and the school has to be between 2 and 6 miles away. Over 6 miles, as all of the grammars are from me, then you're stuffed.

Moreover, the difference between Glos and Bucks is that Bucks CC actively promotes and administers a selective system. It automatically enters all children into the 11+ and children are allocated their school places at 'the most appropriate school' based on the results of this test. So, as you can imagine, it is this which sticks in grammar parents throats when BCC chose to redefine what 'most appropriate' meant by deeming uppers as providing an education equal to grammars and deciding to charge us for the privilege of getting to school. BCC figures showed that, due to the geography and layout of schools in Bucks, only 173 grammar qualified students retained their free (and most importantly guaranteed) entitlement to transport to school after the change, some 4,000 losing out.

I certainly don't feel lucky.

[southbucks3]

Apologies for introducing a note of flippancy here, but should your locality acquire a free school run by the worshippers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, please do not publicise this, as DD would insist on the Toad family upping sticks and relocating and I really, really hate moving house

at least the uniform would be cheap http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... cture.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tch...typical daily mail writing, that headgear is clearly a colander, you sieve flour, not pasta!