Minibus for school students

CASE STUDY: Schools using mini buses to transport children to and from school

We spoke to two schools in Herefordshire who provide mini buses to transport children to and from school. This case study aims to serve as inspiration to other schools, encouraging them to explore the possibility of utilising mini buses to pick up students, thereby reducing car trips and alleviating traffic congestion around school areas.

Maggie Setterfield is from The Steiner Academy Hereford in Much Dewchurch near Hereford and Donna Wiles is from Bredenbury Primary School in Bredenbury near Bromyard.

Tell us about the benefits of your minibus service:

• Attracts students to enroll at the school.
• Improves safety at school by reducing gridlock in the car park and entrances, which can potentially block the main road.
• Provides a significant time benefit for parents, freeing them from the daily school commute, reducing stress, and enabling some parents to work more effectively.
• Offers support to struggling families.
• Reduces congestion on roads, in the village, and in the school car park.
• Increases the likelihood that students will arrive on time, and for some, it has improved attendance.
• Supports parents who don’t drive.
• Allows children to make partial journeys on foot or by bicycle to meet the bus.
• Reduces pollution and airborne emissions by minimizing vehicle use and journeys made. The Steinary Academy have supported the village parish council to formally request a 20mph outside the school.
• Promotes friendships and community across ages, creating a warm family “bus culture” among students and parents.
• Gives parents greater choice in selecting which school to send their child to.
• The school also uses the minibuses for their school trips.

How long has the mini bus service been running for?

Donna Wiles, Bredenbury Primary School “In September 2022, Bredenbury Primary School became an academy and joined the Three Counties Academy Trust, alongside Queen Elizabeth High School, Stoke Prior Primary School, and St Peters Primary School.

Queen Elizabeth High School has always provided a mini bus service to collect students for those who do not live in the town. However, as demand grew, the mini buses were insufficient, so we switched to a standard-sized 53-seater coach. This coach now covers Hereford, Moreton on Lugg, Sutton, and Bodenham, transporting between 45 and 48 children daily. This transition freed up a mini bus to collect students from Bromyard and take them to Bredenbury Primary School, a practice we’ve maintained for about 2 years.

Additionally, Queen Elizabeth High School operates a mini bus to collect children from the Worcester direction, such as Linton. This service supports parents and prevents students who do not qualify for a bus pass from arriving at school too early.”

Maggie Setterfield, The Steiner Academy “Since 2008, when we achieved Academy status we looked formally at our transport with respect to sustainability and our School Travel Plan reflected this. We also had a major rebuild, the school continued open but there was no parking on site so we purchased 6 minibuses with the Academy start up grant and the service has evolved based on demand since then.”

What areas of the county does the mini bus cover? Are there designated pick-up points for students, or do the minibuses provide door-to-door service?

Donna Wiles, Bredenbury Primary School: “Bredenbury Primary School is located away from densely populated areas, so has a catchment area that extends quite far. The nearest town, Bromyard, serves as a convenient central collection point being the Conquest Theatre car park.

There’s ample parking for those who need to drive, while many can walk or cycle to the collection point.

This setup also provides parents with options if they feel their child would thrive in a small rural school instead of a larger town school.”

Maggie Setterfield, The Steiner Academy “Steiner Academy offers a very different education (exempt from the National Curriculum, loads of outside lessons and delayed start to formal learning etc.). Students have always been drawn from a very wide area, necessitating transport to school. Routes change and evolve to meet our families’ needs. Interested groups of parents from an area get together to decide on a route and how they could run it and make it viable.

Children are dropped at prearranged safe stops – if parents have not arrived in time to meet bus the driver has their phone numbers to check progress and make any other arrangements parents authorise – children always safe and accounted for.

The three current buses runs cover Ewyas Harold, Hinton/Belmont/A465 route and the Golden Valley”

What are the costs involved?

Donna Wiles, Bredenbury Primary School: “The Three Counties Academy Trust leases the minibus, with vehicle maintenance included as part of the lease agreement. The students are not charged for this service as the trust covers all associated costs.”

Maggie Setterfield, The Steiner Academy “The days of lush start-up funding are now sadly long gone – originally the bus runs were subsidised. Fourteen years later the system we have evolved meaning that any bus journeys have to be cost-neutral – neither the Academy nor our PTA can subsidise the journeys.

The school owns 4 mini buses. Since initial grants the subsequent buses have been brought 50/50 with funds from the school and PTA. The current cost is about 60p / mile to cover the use of the minibuses. The student pays in depending on how far their journey is, and is then invoiced at the end of the term.”

How many students use the minibuses for transportation to school each day?

Donna Wiles, Bredenbury Primary School: “Bredenbury is a small school with about 40 students enrolled, 8 or 9 children use the bus daily which accounts for over 20% of our student population.”

Maggie Setterfield, The Steiner Academy “2 out of the 3 bus runs are full, journeys are prebooked but spare spaces can be used by friends coming over, or to suit family needs, all recorded onto the kept weekly lists to be invoiced at end of term.”

Who drives the buses?

Donna Wiles, Bredenbury Primary School: “Our caretaker is the designated minibus driver, working full-time (37 hours per week) and this is part of his duties. Employed year-round, he takes on larger maintenance tasks during the summer and is kept very busy.”

Maggie Setterfield, The Steiner Academy: “Volunteers drive the buses, usually parents on a fortnightly rota, which can be amended when needed. Parents often offer 1 or 2 days a week, depending on what suits their needs. For example, one of our drivers leaves their car at the school on Monday afternoon and drives the after-school drop-off route. They park the bus at a local garage opposite their house overnight and drive the bus for morning pick-ups on Tuesday, then retrieve their car that was left at the school”

What training do your drivers have?

Donna Wiles, Bredenbury Primary School: “We have a lightweight minibus, allowing anyone over 21 with insurance to drive it, as a D1 license is not required. Our caretaker, who also has a DBS, usually drives the bus. If the caretaker is unavailable, a teacher from Queen Elizabeth High School steps in to drive.”

Maggie Setterfield, The Steiner Academy “Our current Premises Manager has completed full MIDA minibus trainer accreditation training. All prospective volunteer drivers, staff and parents, complete a 2hr theory session with a paper-based theory test, then have a 1hr driving assessment session with him – which can give an accreditation which is useful and transferrable to other settings.

As drivers may have unsupervised contact with students all have to successfully apply for an enhanced disclosure DBS, as would all other parent helpers in school. The school pay for the DBS using Hoople as an agency. Parents need to bring in two formal proofs of identity e.g. passport, photo-driving license, birth certificate plus one proof of address within past three months e.g. bank statement or utility bill. When this has been done access is given to an online portal for parents to apply – support is given if necessary. This can take a few weeks to come back but until this is received drivers cannot start.

Before any driving assessment individuals need to obtain a DVLA permission code to enable school admin to check current validity of driving license and any points. Should a parent have significant history of speeding/phone use revealed, we would reserve the right not to accept them.

The license is also checked to see if a code D1 is held or not. Since 1998 new drivers do not have this section and so can only drive vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes – for our fleet of buses this means that currently such drivers are only eligible to drive our 14 seater lighter bus or our adapted bus. This would vary for other schools, depending on the buses owned and driving history of individual volunteers. We are currently buying a new bus, intending to reduce down to 4 again later in the year.

Prospective drivers are also issued with a comprehensive Drivers Handbook and a volunteer agreement to sign, including confidentiality agreement and safeguarding guidelines. The buses are maintained to a high level by regular inspection and are also very regularly serviced by local garage.

Was it difficult to find insurance for the buses and changing drivers?

Both schools use a commercial provider and say it was not difficult to find an insurer.

Any other useful information that would be helpful to share:

• Two of our buses weigh over 3.5 tonnes, requiring drivers to hold a D1 license. We are currently working on adjusting bus assignments to accommodate younger drivers.
• Bad weather or driver cancellations – few drivers comfortable taking big vehicles on country lanes in bad weather. If we have to cancel all contacts are readily available to contact parents and facilitate lift sharing arrangements
• Each bus community has a WhatsApp group which very efficiently fills empty spaces and arranges emergency lift shares if needed

Maggie is happy to be contacted to discuss and share her knowledge of providing a mini bus collection service for your school and her details are Maggie Setterfield maggie.setterfield@steineracademyhereford.org.uk