Teenagers being driven to and from school

There are rules about access to free transport. I can't remember them exactly but in England you used to have to be at a the nearest suitable school - which is your catchment area school. This means you won't get it free if you chose a different one.
Also, that school has to be more than a certain distance from your home - it used to be 2 or 3 miles up to the age of 8 and further if older. This is the distance a child is "expected" to be able to walk.
A bus journey may be offered at a charge for children who aren't within the statutory rules if the local authority wants to do it but they aren't obliged to provide this.

For info, "special needs" transport and transport to a grammar school is different.

My GC are fortunate in living 5 minutes walk away from their grammar school, so no problem. Their house, however, is on a busy main road, parking is allowed, so there is always a line of 6th formers cars for the whole of the school day. My DS finds it hard to get out of their driveway when he goes to work.

I trust that second sentence is tongue in cheek, n8?!

Distance is an issue for my grandchildren because it would be an hour or so to walk. Plus you don’t know how many serial killers are hiding in the bushes.

Selfish, entitled, lazy & rude yummy mummies. There’s a big car park 5 minutes walk away!

People are often in a rush to drop other children at a different school/nursery then get to work. The median salary in the UK is not enough to pay rent and buy food with only one working parent.

The world is very different from 40 years ago so have some compassion.

Many move away from the expensive area they were renting for a year to get into the good school.

Also, my daughter has said that often, the (public) bus is too full, then doesn't stop at some stops, meaning they have to wait for the next one which gets them to school late and they would have been standing in freezing weather for 40 mins.

The bus comes every 40 mins for a 30 minute route. So 7.30 am gets them to school at 8.00. the next bus is 8.10 getting them there at 8.40 if there's no traffic. Ten minute walk to school from the stop. They are late. The bus before is 6.50. It's a twenty minute walk to the bus stop. So leave the house at 6.30, school starts at 8.45. they are not allowed indoors early so at if the bus gets them to school at 7am, they are standing outside in winter for an hour and a half.

Or make a 20 minute journey by car on the way to work.

Why not go to the closest school? Because people want the best for their children. If someone disapproves of them being driven to school, so be it.

Whilst I agree that local schools should be best . That’s not the case especially after 12 years of conservative incompetence.
Poorer areas need investment too & writing children off because of their circumstances is unfair. Perhaps if private schools like Eaton had their charitable statues removed and were taxed according state schools could benefit at ladt

People who park across my drive (for whatever reason) often find that their paint is not so pristine when they get home.

Galaxy

Well in our area it's because they are told to beswitched so that they are not adding traffic to residential streets.

I suppose I'm really talking about schools that are off main roads and on residential streets. Surely teenagers could hop out somewhere safe and convenient instead of parents clogging up narrow residential roads and parking across driveways.

This started happening in my area when the council stopped the free bus pass for students at the private schools about 40 years ago!

What always has me puzzled when I was travelling to work on the bus every day, is that you used to look at those in cars when stuck in traffic jams, and very rarely did you see any with children in ! Yet it was at a time before the schools opened and you used to see students walking in the school gates!
Where were they all ? In the boot ???

I have also wondered at the number of cars parked in school grounds term time, some overflowing to the side of the road next to the school. How many staff do you need at a school these days?

I think it would be better for them to walk when possible. But my GD would need to pass some dark woods on her way home. Fortunately there’s a convenient bus. Please spare a thought for the anxious parents with so much on their minds …. abductions, mugging, drug dealers, walking with unsuitable companions, traffic, darkness etc.

All 3 DC went by bus to school. When they were learning to drive they drove there as driving practise. It worked for all 3.
I used to walk to school till I was 16 and we moved towns so had to get the bus. I always came home at lunchtime in my first high school till my mother went back to work for a cooked lunch. Once she went to work my best friend and I saved our school lunch money and bought chicken noodle packet soup and a Swiss roll every single day and took it to my house to make and eat. I considered that wild ?

Here is is very hard to get into the nearest school if it is good.If it has a bad name the children apply to one 10 miles away which is very hard to get into. Even if you have a sibling at that school it does not mean the others in the family will get in . Lots of parents then have to rush to a second school with the other child.
Luckily my grandson did not choose the school near me as I don't know how he would have travelled as his parents work is in the opposite direction.He can now get a bus into town and after school walk to other grans house.

Oops

This is my grandson age 9 walking to school encumbered with guitar, backpack , forest school kit and lunch bag. Nothing wrong with his legs!!

Well in our area it's because they are told to beswitched so that they are not adding traffic to residential streets.

My children went by train, then bus then 20 minute walk from the age of 7. A big gang of them for safety. I walked a mile from the age of 5 then went to boarding school (by steam train!) each term. Our village school is in my road which is very narrow School has an unwritten rule, which few parents adhere to, of a one way system. It’s a popular school very high on the Best Primary in England list with many children living some distance. I can’t believe how lazy some parents are, parking as near to the school gates as possible, blocking the road, 3 point turns with children fore & aft, parking across neighbour’s driveways & on their verges and if I dare try to drive past the school to my property which I try not to at drop off times, the looks I get from the parents standing in the middle of the road are unbelievable. Selfish, entitled, lazy & rude yummy mummies. There’s a big car park 5 minutes walk away! ?

I picked up teenage DGS from school the other evening. He was encumbered with his school bag, his sports bag, his (huge) cricket bag, and his (surprisingly large) hockey bag. Public transport was simply not an option.

Even where secondary pupils live some distance away and not on a public transport route to the school, why do parents have to drop them to the door? Surely, unless they have a disability or are carrying a heavy musical instrument or something, they can just jump out somewhere handy and walk the rest of the way?

I regularly see long tailbacks on a main road bear me caused by car after car with teenagers sitting in the back waiting to turn right. The school is about 3 minutes walk up that road.

Sarnia

I have often wondered why the UK has never adopted a school bus system like the US operate. It would reduce so much traffic and emissions and children could get to and from school safely.

We certainly have that system round here. Double deckers start arriving at our local high school at 2pm, then hang around for up to an hour before heading off less than half full. We counted 13 of them once. And we still have parents in cars jostling for position every afternoon. We’re not rural, we just have a lot of pupils choosing not to go to their nearest schools, for various reasons.

Sarnia

I have often wondered why the UK has never adopted a school bus system like the US operate. It would reduce so much traffic and emissions and children could get to and from school safely.

I’ve wondered the same thing myself. I think the answer would need to be a public service though. I know a couple of people whose childrens’ school offers a bus service but it’s really expensive and the subscription has to be paid upfront each term so that the school can plan usage.

We live round the corner from a much sought after high school and pupils come from all over the area - school runs are a nightmare for the residents. I don’t think the issue is so much parents actually driving their kids to school - I can understand the reasoning behind it - as their complete disregard for other pedestrians and road users when they get there - they seem to lose all sense of reason.

Here, it’s not just a case of dropping children off at the gate - it’s parking down every residential road near to the school and then walking the kids in. I’ve seen people do things that would make your hair stand on end - including one parent, who in an effort to park nearer the school, reversed down the pavement and knocked over a resident coming out of her gate. We regularly have the end of the road blocked by parents parking either side, so there’s no access to the main road, and I’ve had to plead with people to move from across my drive so I can get my car out. My neighbour has actually come home during the afternoon school run to find a 4x4 parked on her drive !!

There have been many complaints to the school and also residents calling 101 - myself included when one parent started turning up at 8am every morning and sitting outside my house for twenty minutes with the engine running and the radio blaring while they waited.

So maybe stop asking mummy and daddy to chauffer you around the place.

What's wrong with teenagers finding their own way to school? Learning a bit of independence, getting some exercise and not adding to the already crazy traffic around the place.

What's wrong with teens being driven to school?
If they can, do it! Gets a few more hours of sleep