11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi All,

Our son is very keen on RGS over JHGS and wondered if anyone had experience of the buses?

It would appear that Nealls Taxi's run the free service for County but we would have to pay if there are any spaces left after the free ones are taken.

Does anyone have experience of this service and how likely it is to get a space?

Any help is very much appreciated as this is a dilemma for us as he so wants RGS.

I don't know about this particular bus service, but you should be aware that there has been a lot of fuss this term over the Bucks school buses. BCC are only obliged to put on buses for those entitled to free transport, so they will not put on an extra bus if fare paying children would like one. In Farnham Common this year there were 50 children traveling to the 2 schools in Beaconsfield without transport (part of the problem is that the Khalsa school is now their catchment school so children generally aren't entitled to free transport), but it has happened in other areas too, for example children traveling from Iver to BGS. The parents were informed at midnight on the Bank Holiday Monday at the end of August.
My point is, don't rely on a bus service that could disappear! Are you within the usual distance for RGS?

Thanks for the heads up.

We are in catchment for both RGS and JHGS (3.7 and 3.6 miles respectively). My DS1 takes a school special public bus to JHGS but DS2 prefers RGS (probably because DS1 is at JHGS ).

Does anyone travel Wooburn Green to RGS?

I just asked on the Yr8 WhatsApp group for my son's class in case any of the families travel from Wooburn. Apparently there is a school bus that goes from Woodburn Green, through Bourne End and Flackwell Heath, then onto RGS. The No. 658 apparently, the service provider is Neales. Hope that helps!

In addition...it might be worth asking others who 'qualified' in your son's class/school if they have the same intention. Where we live a lot of the kidswho didn't qualify two/three years ago didn't want to go to the local comp, so chose one a couple of villages away instead (which, incidentally, was a real shame, as two years later our local one has pulled its socks up and is awesome - so nice in fact that my younger son who just qualified is actually considering going there instead of to RGS!) There were no council/school bus arrangements in place, but as there were quite a few parents from the same village wanting to go, they organised something between them. You mentioned that both RGS and JH are catchment schools for you, so maybe if you ask around you might find other parents already have something in place that you could be part of in the same way? Just a thought.

Thank you greengecko for that reply. We knew about that bus but cannot check if we can have a place until March, 5 months after the application close!

However, your answer suggests others have managed to so I think we just keep fingers crossed.