I was just after some advice if possible please. DD looks likely to have secured a seat on the school bus to AGS via the vacant seat scheme.
Our dilemma is whether to purchase an annual or monthly bus pass for her. She has a tendency to misplace things on a regular basis and our worry is that if she loses an annual pass it may or may not be replaced.
Any info or thoughts would be gratefully received.

We have annual bus passes (admittedly ours were free as our boys are older so still got free travel till they were 18). The letter that came with it said lost passes were replaced at a cost of £5 each...and we know several friends who have had to use that facility - mind you that was with Warks County Council rather than a bus company direct.

I am always amazed at how children can lose their bus passes. My daughter's pass stays in her blazer zip pocket and is only taken out when required by the bus driver and then returned to said pocket.
Mind you when you look at some of the items that are in lost property you wonder how on earth the kids could have lost them!!

If it is the vacant seat scheme then the number of passes you receive depends on the way you pay. 1 off payment means one pass to last all year, monthly or termly payments means new pass each term. I have had to replace one pass, my DD & DS have racked up almost 13 years of bus travel between them since the age of 4.

I also wonder at some of the items which turn up in school lost property cupboards.

However, re your DD's bus pass, does she keep that and nothing else in that particular blazer pocket? If there are other things which a student needs to keep in the zipped pocket for security , but which have to be accessed on occasion during the day, it is quite easy to pull other items out at the same time and not notice that you have dropped them, particularly if you are in a hurry.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Yes...we live right by a school bus stop and I have lost count of the number of items (full PE/school bags, plus bus passes, library cards, entry cards etc) that I have picked up over the years. As TM says, sometimes there is such a rush to get on the bus that children do not notice that they have dropped something or the pass falls out of their wallet. We usually ring the school concerned and leave the item in a safe place outside our home for them to collect on the way back.

Amongst the random things that I have found near our house was an unnamed PE vest bearing the logo of a school about six miles away. Assuming it belonged to a student but not having the time to traipse over to the school, I left it on the bench where I had found it and rang the school to tell them.

It turned out to belong to a member of staff, who was one of a group of friends renting the house near the bench. I did wonder whether 'Miss' had given herself a detention for turning up without the correct uniform .

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

When DD started at Shottery with a 'vacant seat' pass many moons ago we bought a key ring with a curly lead, like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/coil-key-chain

The pass holder clipped on to the lead with the other end clipped securely inside her bag or blazer. This worked well during the early days. It disappeared eventually, but it was a great tip from this Forum to get us started!

Thank you everyone. I'll wait and see what comes through from the council, but definitely leaning towards a monthly pass after reading all your helpful comments.