Over the past few weeks pupils have been experiencing issues with the school transport from Bishopton, Inchinnan and Langbank. These issues have been raised with Scottish Passenger Transport and Renfrewshire Council who are responsible for organising and monitoring the school contracts. SPT are also responsible for allocating pupils to a specific bus and this is based on the pupil’s home address.
In order to support SPT and Renfrewshire Council to address these issues, the school has issued a letter to all pupils who have applied for free school transport, along with a bus pass for the contract bus that they have been allocated to. SPT has provided the school with a list of pupils who have applied for school transport from which a pass has been issued. Each pupil can only travel on the bus that they have been allocated to as this determines the capacity of the bus and the number of pupils allocated to each bus. The bus passes issued are a different colour for the different contracts and the bus driver will ask pupils to show their bus pass on boarding the bus. Please ensure your child carry their pass each day to and from school. There will be a coloured sign on each bus which is the same as the colour of the bus pass, with a bus number. The bus number is also on the bus pass issued to pupils.
Each contract bus has a specific route of pick up points and pick up times which are detailed here on the school website, the contract number for each pupil is detailed on their pass. Can I ask that parents check the contract specification and discuss with your child, the pick up points and times for their bus. The contractor is only insured to carry the pupils on the list of entitled pupils from SPT.
There were a number of pupils today who expected a bus pass however their name is not on the list of entitled pupils from SPT. Parents can apply online for transport on the Renfrewshire Council website – www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/schooltransport. Pupils cannot travel on the school bus until the application has been processed by Renfrewshire Council and SPT has allocated the pupil to a contract. This is to ensure there is sufficient capacity for the pupil.
There were also a number of pupils who did not collect their letter and bus pass, these can be collected from the school office from Monday morning.