School Transport – Buses
The start of term is always a little challenging in respect to the bus services that transport our students to and from school. I would like to address some of the points raised by parents in recent emails, and how I am working to address them.
I would like to firstly clarify that the contract to transport students to and from school is between Staffordshire/Derbyshire County Council School Transport and the individual bus companies. JTHS is not involved in any aspect of this tendering or organisation. As such, we have no control over the bus routes or timetables. One of my roles in school is to act as liaison with School Transport and the bus companies.
As a school, there are a number of things that I do to help support the transport of students to and from the school.
- I look to instil high expectations of conduct of our students on these services. I require that the students remain seated and respect their fellow passengers, bus drivers and the vehicles. I will work with the individual companies to address any issues where students’ conduct does not meet these expectations. If this is the case, students will initially receive a warning from me, however, significant or persistent conduct issues can result in temporary or permanent removal of bus passes.
- The students are met off the bus in the morning by a member of staff and we have a duty team at the end of the day to escort students to their buses. The organisation of this generally runs very smoothly but we do require students to listen carefully for when their bus is called so that they don’t miss the service. We will not let coaches leave school site until at least 3:50pm.
- Many of the services are run by Diamond Buses. These are local service buses which are designed to have a seating and a standing capacity. I regularly check that these buses do not transport students above their carrying capacity. As such some services are single deckers, other are double deckers. Unfortunatley, this does mean that some of our students will stand during their bus journey. To support our youngest students, we will organise for the Year 7s to get on the buses first when leaving school site in the afternoon. I do report any services that come with the wrong size bus and this is again being monitored by School Transport.
- Finally, I know that parents are concerned about buses being on time. Locally, there have been some traffic issues and road works (I understand the Alrewas Road works are due to complete on the 23rd September). However, the service we have received on some of the routes has not been as timely as I would like. To try to improve this service, I provide County School Transport with the arrival times in the morning and afternoon each week so that they can hold the bus companied to account. If I am made aware that a bus will be late, I will try to get a message out via Schoolzine and email to update parents.
I hope that this provides some context for parents. Should you wish to report anything to School Transport, their contact details can be found here for Staffordshire: School transport - Staffordshire County Council, for Derbyshire Students, the contact details can be found here: School transport - Derbyshire County Council. If you wish to raise something with the school directly, please use our office@jths.co.uk email.
J Twynham
Deputy Headteacher
