£1280 a year to get my son to school

[Felstmiester]

One of our boys started secondary school last year. We views all the schools in our catchment area and picked three the we/he liked. Up to this point nothing had been mentioned about transport costs.

It turned out that he didn't get his first choice school witch is around 8/9 miles from our home. Instead he got second choice around 9/10 miles from our house. We then found out. Because the school isn't the nearest school in our catchment area we need to pay £1280 a year for the private bus to get him to school. public bus is not an option as the earliest one from where we live terminates around 2 miles away from his school so by the time he's messed about changing buses he would be late. Us taking him is not an option as we have other young children and with work it's a no no.

Now my gripe is not the fact I have to pay the money. It's the fact I'm the only one that has to pay. The bus travels from the town my sons school is and picks up our son first. It then travels less than half a mile down the road and picks up a couple of others that for some reason get free transport because they're within the distance required. We have said we would get him to the bus stop down the road but have been told it goes on your postcode.

The government has now took the school my son goes to off the list of school choices for our area so we don't even have the option to hope next year some other children may go there so parents can maybe share the school run between them to keep the cost down.

There's probably 30 kids that get on the bus and 1 person that pays.

I'm wondering if by chance another couple of kids went to this school from our village. Would we get a discount. No I bet we wouldn't. Sorry for the rant but it's a hundred quid odd a month I could do without paying out.

Anyone else have this.

 

[ChrisEdu]

Both of my sons have to travel by train to get to and from school.

 

[oldguy57]

Yep I would be ranting too - cant believe there is no solution to it.

 

[StuartK]

Don't send them to school let them try and fine you. Go to court and see who wins. Disgrace paying for your children to get to school!

 

[grober]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...e_to_School_Travel_and_Transport_Guidance.pdf
may have been superceded?

 

[renault12ts]

Ours had to walk to school...never calculated the extra cost of shoes...

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Yep I would be ranting too - cant believe there is no solution to it.

It's a real conundrum isn't it?

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Disgrace paying for your children to get to school!

Who should pay, the taxpayer?

 

[Felstmiester]

Who should pay, the taxpayer?

Like I said. I've been paying it since last year and I don't expect to sponge off the government. The issue is there's one person paying for the bus. ME!! So who pays for the bus if we move?? The government.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Like I said. I've been paying it since last year and I don't expect to sponge off the government. The issue is there's one person paying for the bus. ME!! So who pays for the bus if we move?? The government.

I doubt your £100 a month covers the cost of the bus, it will be in the thousands.

 

[camerafodder]

I'm confused, just for clarity, do you let your children choose their schools?

 

[StuartK]

Who should pay, the taxpayer?

I'd rather the tax payer pay for it given the fact the OP seems to work and pay his share of taxes judging by his assumed financial position. Maybe the government could afford to pay if we stopped our "dustbin" Britain status and closed our borders. Furthermore they seem pretty frivolous with our money that gets squandered on lazy non working/won't work people.

Let's educate our children not waste money on Vicky pollard in her council flat sponging of the state.

 

[KennyN]

If your pickup is on the route then it is unfair to have to pay , if it has to go outwith its pre-planned (local authority) route to do the pickup then there should be an additional charge as where do you draw the line as to the pickup distance ???

Kenny

 

[markmifsud]

Someone I know sold their house to make a better school come under the nearest one.

 

[Chrishazle]

Yet another area where I wonder how free transport ( and other educational costs) were paid by the local council when I went to school / Uni, yet now it's parents (and students) who have to pay. I had about a 40 minute bus ride to grammar school, I got a bus pass off the local council and travelled for free. When I went to Uni, my tuition fees were paid by the local council, the maintnance element was means tested so my parents paid almost all of it. Then look at what we pay each year to the local council - even allowing for inflation, I bet I pay a hell of a lot more than my parents did! Plus, of course, students are expected to finance their higher education with a student loan which they later have to repay. Progress??????

However, in one way consider yourself lucky. The local primary school let both my children down badly very early on, I was earning good money so voted with my cheque book and sent them private - out of nett income. OK, they both got excellent educations leading to excellent jobs, but the cost to us - my normal comment is that it has cost us £10k pa of retirement income for the rest of our lives, and that's after their inheritance from my parents paid a big chunk.

 

[MancMike]

One of our sons is autistic, and is at a school with special care for his needs, but it was local to where we used to live. It's 10 miles from home now.

My mrs makes that journey 4 times a day.

Rough man maths, if she can average 32mpg, it'll cost us £1125 a year.

We'd happily pay what you're paying if it meant someone else had to do that driving...

 

[Felstmiester]

If your pickup is on the route then it is unfair to have to pay , if it has to go outwith its pre-planned (local authority) route to do the pickup then there should be an additional charge as where do you draw the line as to the pickup distance ???

Kenny

Yes I totally agree. They have to draw the line somewhere. Just a bitch it's less than half a mile away. And the fact they won't waver it if we take him down to the next bus stop.

I don't want any hand outs. I've been self employed all my working life and there's times when I've had no work for weeks on end. In fact I'm not snowed under at the moment. Maybe that's why I'm ranting about this now. I've never had anything off the government.

I'm just getting this out in the open.

 

[Charles Morgan]

It's a bummer. My local village lost its secondary in 1989, with a promise from the council that the children would be bussed free to the replacement school 13 miles away. Then, for some very convoluted reasons, a religious free school intended for children from a neighbouring borough, with a smaller intake in total than the year cohort from here, was located in the local district. At which point the council reneged on the promise from 1989 and included the free school as the nearest so revoked the free travel - despite it only being able to take one 10th of the children required from here (with only 2 getting places, having mucked up their entry forms). Suddenly parents were looking at £350 each. This caused enough of a stink that it was changed, but I fear if it's just your child, you are rather shafted.

 

[Chrishazle]

To ask a silly question, why did you move 10 miles from where you used to live - or did you not know when you moved that you would need that school?

We made the mistake when we bought in Sussex - from working overseas and needing a UK home for our then 4 1/2 year old (who is now approaching 38) to go to school. Picked a small Sussex village with what looked like an excellent CofE primary, did not look at local secondary schools - the primary let us down with both children, and as both were bright and Sussex (to this day) has no selective secondary schools, moving to Sussex was an expensive mistake.

 

[guydewdney]

my kids school (primary, hes only 5) has a local privately owned and run minibus.

the bus company is in the next village along from us, slightly further away from the school than we are. it drives past my house.

however, as im less than xyz distance from the school, i dont qualify for it to pick him up. so every morning is the usual chaos that is the school run with mums that im sure have a competition to see how many cars they can block in with just one (i think the record is six....).