Should my daughters school let her finish early

silvercar

burtons said:

Diamandis said:

That's where it might be an issue, if it was a temporary thing until things got back to normal it would probably be more reasonable to finish early for a short period of time. It sounds like it's not a popular bus route so they might not actually put it back on so you might need to look at other methods of transport or schools that are closer. 

It looks like we will have to put in a complaint to the bus company as some schools and colleges are having buses put on. If we lived in the area where my daughter went to school we could get a school bus down to the school where I live.

That is irrelevant, there may be far more pupils making the reverse journey.bradders1983 said:

You are directing your complaint at the wrong organisation tbh.

Totally agree. You should be speaking to the head of the school, he knows the issues of pupils travelling from afar to attend his school. You should be speaking to the local authority school transport department and quoting "local authorities and Welsh Ministers have a duty under the Learner Travel Measure to ‘promote access to education and training through the medium of Welsh" from the document I linked to in a previous post. They have the power to provide transport for you. Also contact your councillors/ MP. To remove a transport provision you relied on when deciding on a school for your daughter is unreasonable.

Undervalued

burtons said:

Diamandis said:

That's where it might be an issue, if it was a temporary thing until things got back to normal it would probably be more reasonable to finish early for a short period of time. It sounds like it's not a popular bus route so they might not actually put it back on so you might need to look at other methods of transport or schools that are closer. 

It looks like we will have to put in a complaint to the bus company as some schools and colleges are having buses put on. If we lived in the area where my daughter went to school we could get a school bus down to the school where I live.

Unless part of their contract with the local authority requires them to run certain services (does it?) it is entirely a commercial decision. Otherwise no commercial company is going to run a service unless it is generally profitable. Would you?

gary83

burtons said:

Diamandis said:

That's where it might be an issue, if it was a temporary thing until things got back to normal it would probably be more reasonable to finish early for a short period of time. It sounds like it's not a popular bus route so they might not actually put it back on so you might need to look at other methods of transport or schools that are closer. 

It looks like we will have to put in a complaint to the bus company as some schools and colleges are having buses put on. If we lived in the area where my daughter went to school we could get a school bus down to the school where I live.

Again, I know it sounds harsh but you chose to not send your daughter to the local school. When you chose to send your daughter to a school further away the bus company didn’t agree to provide a bus service to wherever you wanted to send her.

silvercar

Undervalued said:

burtons said:

Diamandis said:

That's where it might be an issue, if it was a temporary thing until things got back to normal it would probably be more reasonable to finish early for a short period of time. It sounds like it's not a popular bus route so they might not actually put it back on so you might need to look at other methods of transport or schools that are closer. 

It looks like we will have to put in a complaint to the bus company as some schools and colleges are having buses put on. If we lived in the area where my daughter went to school we could get a school bus down to the school where I live.

Unless part of their contract with the local authority requires them to run certain services (does it?) it is entirely a commercial decision. Otherwise no commercial company is going to run a service unless it is generally profitable. Would you?

It may well be covered by a contract. It could be that the bus company gets the contract for a more profitable route conditional on them providing a non commercial route. The devil is in the detail. Though complain to the local authority rather than the bus company.

silvercar

gary83 said:

burtons said:

Diamandis said:

That's where it might be an issue, if it was a temporary thing until things got back to normal it would probably be more reasonable to finish early for a short period of time. It sounds like it's not a popular bus route so they might not actually put it back on so you might need to look at other methods of transport or schools that are closer. 

It looks like we will have to put in a complaint to the bus company as some schools and colleges are having buses put on. If we lived in the area where my daughter went to school we could get a school bus down to the school where I live.

Again, I know it sounds harsh but you chose to not send your daughter to the local school. When you chose to send your daughter to a school further away the bus company didn’t agree to provide a bus service to wherever you wanted to send her.

That is a very general statement, local authorities have discretionary powers to provide transport to faith and welsh language schools. 
It may also be that the bus company did agree to provide such a service in the past and now have withdrawn it. Whether they can do so depends on their contract with the LA, assuming they have one.
Local authorities have to provide transport to the nearest suitable school if it is over 2 (primary)/ 3 (secondary) miles away; they can extend this to welsh language and faith schools at their discretion, with the added weight that welsh LAs are meant to encourage learning through welsh. However, as this school is under 3 miles from OPs home, they don't have to provide transport, unless OP can show it is unsafe. 
You could ask for the safety assessment of the route. If walking through the woods is deemed unsafe, would the safe route be over 3 miles? I know getting the LA to do a safety assessment of the route can take many months, with no guaranteed outcome, which is why I haven't mentioned it before. I also haven't a clue whether walking through the woods would be deemed unsafe in the same way as walking along a road with no pavement and no street lights in the dark would be.

Spendless

burtons said:

Spendless said:

Dark nights won't happen until the clocks change at the end of October, so you've got until October half term to sort something out.
Have you contacted the bus company to see what their long term plans are for this route? If they don't intend ever ressuming it, then you've got an issue. Not just a temporary one for part of yr9. but what you're doing until she finishes GCSEs. If that's the case either you'll need to find an alternative such as a different school or being able to be picked up by car or throw some money at the situation such as a taxi home.

My daugher is in year 8. We had a email from the local bus company to say most of the services will increase from the 13th of September but It didn't show where we live so we phoned the bus company and all they could tell us was it doesn't look like they are changing anything. We don't have an option to pick her up by car and a taxi is expensive and that's why we decided for her to catch a bus as it's £30 a month. 

Apologies, she must have an early September birthday to be already 13 in yr8.
So if the buses no longer run, the walking (and maybe cycling?) route is unsafe, there's no option to pick child up by car and taxis are too expensive, how do you intend your child getting home from school for the next 4 years?
Asking the head that she leaves early maybe an agreeable short term solution. I can't see that being in place until 2024. 

burtons

Spendless said:

burtons said:

Spendless said:

Dark nights won't happen until the clocks change at the end of October, so you've got until October half term to sort something out.
Have you contacted the bus company to see what their long term plans are for this route? If they don't intend ever ressuming it, then you've got an issue. Not just a temporary one for part of yr9. but what you're doing until she finishes GCSEs. If that's the case either you'll need to find an alternative such as a different school or being able to be picked up by car or throw some money at the situation such as a taxi home.

My daugher is in year 8. We had a email from the local bus company to say most of the services will increase from the 13th of September but It didn't show where we live so we phoned the bus company and all they could tell us was it doesn't look like they are changing anything. We don't have an option to pick her up by car and a taxi is expensive and that's why we decided for her to catch a bus as it's £30 a month. 

Apologies, she must have an early September birthday to be already 13 in yr8.
So if the buses no longer run, the walking (and maybe cycling?) route is unsafe, there's no option to pick child up by car and taxis are too expensive, how do you intend your child getting home from school for the next 4 years?
Asking the head that she leaves early maybe an agreeable short term solution. I can't see that being in place until 2024. 

Her birthday is the 3rd of september. I've contacted my local bus depot to find out what are the plans for the bus in my area before we can decide further. She doesn't have a bike and if she did she would end up pushing it from town up to school as it's all up hill.