Mile walk to school OK for older children, say parents
Wednesday 15th February 2012, 1:00PM GMT.
Pilot Richard Pattimore hopes that by the time two-year-old son Theo starts secondary school he will have enough road sense to be able to walk and he agrees with the new policy. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 1224250)
SECONDARY school students are old enough and roadwise enough to walk to and from school, parents have said.
Those spoken to by the Guernsey Press yesterday backed the Environment Department after it announced secondary pupils living within a mile of their school would no longer be guaranteed a seat on school buses.
It made the decision following complaints that some children who lived several miles from school had been unable to catch a bus home because students living much closer were using the service.
The new rule means the last official pick-up point for each morning bus is about a mile from the school.
Any pupil waiting after that will be picked up only if there is room.
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The Environment Dept have got this absolutely spot on.
One question though – how will it work going home? Presumably students living further than a mile away from school will get special passes to show to the bus driver?
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The Press report suggests that the first drop off point on the way home will be a minimum of one mile away from the school
Presumably those who boarded the bus will have to walk back towards the school if they live less than a mile away so I suppose if you live three quarters of a mile away from the school it will still be of benefit to the lazier of the children to get aboard
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Ray – surely in general the incoming buses start at the furthest point and move inwards towards the school? In which case it stands to reason the students living furthest away will get on first.
On the other hand, for the return journey all the students will be in one place so who’s to know which ones live closest? If this is going to work then students living further away will need to be given some form of “priority pass” identifying them to the driver. Otherwise, as you said, anyone could get on and they end up missing out.
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Can’t recall how it worked but when I caught the school bus you knew that you were allowed to do so. There were also no near stops either, it was a good two miles before the first bus stop.
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