Welcome To Wirral

From September 2008 the following policy applies to all new applicants for Foundation 2 classes in primary/infant schools

Pupils are eligible for free travel to the nearest appropriate school if they live:

• more than 2 miles to an appropriate school if they are under 8; and more than 3 miles to an appropriate school if they are 8 or over. This applies to all children who are registered at a school, including those under 5, but it does not include children at nursery schools or classes.

By ‘appropriate’ we mean that the religious (denominational) character of the school. This means that we will pay for your child’s travel if they have to travel to the nearest Catholic or Church of England primary school. If there is no appropriate school we will pay for your child’s travel to the nearest appropriate school where there are places available.

We will also pay the travel cost of children who are at the same school as older brothers or sisters whose travel costs we are already paying.

However children, attending primary schools, aged 8 to 11 from families who are entitled to free school meals or those families who receive the maximum level of Working Tax Credit will be eligible if they live more than 2 miles from the nearest appropriate school.

We may also pay other children’s travel costs if we decide it is necessary because of their age and the nature of the routes they could take to school. As a general guide, we will treat routes with no pavements and no street lighting as unsafe for children.

We will measure the distance between your child’s home and the school gate nearest to their home by the shortest available suitable walking route. We do not necessarily expect children to walk that distance – it is just a way of deciding whether you should pay for the travel or whether we should pay.

We make special arrangements to transport children who are going to special schools or bases. You will find details of these arrangements in the ‘Special Education’ section.

From September 2008 the following policy applies to all new applicants for Year 7 in secondary schools

Pupils are eligible for free travel to the nearest appropriate school if they live more than 3 miles from the nearest appropriate school.

By ‘appropriate’ we mean;

The academic nature of the school. For example, all-ability schools provide for children of all abilities and grammar schools for only part of the ability range. A pupil who lives within three miles of an all-ability school but who is given a place at a grammar school more than three miles from home is not eligible for free travel

The religious (denominational) character of the school. This means that we will pay for your child’s travel if they have to travel to the nearest Catholic school. If there is no appropriate school we will pay for your child’s travel to the nearest appropriate school where there are places available. This policy also applies to children who are allocated places at St Anselm’s College and Upton Hall School – the nearest appropriate school means the nearest Catholic school which may be an all-ability school.

We will also pay the travel cost of children who are at the same school as older brothers or sisters whose travel costs we are already paying.

From September 2008 children from families who are entitled to free school meals or those families who receive the maximum level of Working Tax Credit will be eligible for free travel for a journey to one of the three nearest appropriate schools between two and six miles of the home address or if the journey is to a school based on religious preference between 2 and 15 miles of the home address.

We may also pay other children’s travel costs if we decide it is necessary because of their age and the nature of the routes they could take to school. As a general guide, we will treat routes with no pavements and no street lighting as unsafe for children. We will measure the distance between your child’s home and the school gate nearest to their home by the shortest available suitable walking route. We do not necessarily expect children to walk that distance – it is just a way of deciding whether you should pay for the travel or whether we should pay.

If there is no appropriate school within three miles we will pay the cost of transport arrangements to the nearest appropriate school but not to a more distant one. However, we will pay the travel costs of children who are transferring to the same secondary school as older brothers or sisters whose travel costs we are already paying.

We will also pay 50% of the travel costs of those children who are given a place at a secondary school which was not named as their first or second preference, and which is further away from their home address than any schools named as a preference, as long as they live more than three miles from their school.

These children will be given a bus pass and the parents will be issued with an invoice for 50% of the cost of the pass. In 2008/2009, the full cost of a Solo or one-zone Trio pass is £205.00 and the full cost of an area Trio pass is £255.00.

We may also pay the travel costs in those cases where, because of the children’s age and the nature of the available routes which they could reasonably be expected to take to school, we think it necessary to pay the travel costs. As a general guide, we will treat routes without pavements and street lighting as ‘unsafe’ for children.

We will pay the full cost of transport for pupils who are entitled to free travel. Only in the most exceptional circumstances will we pay the travelling costs of pupils who do not fall into the categories described before.

We will measure the distance between the child’s home and the school gate nearest to the child’s home by the shortest available walking route. We measure distance using a computerised mapping system. This is not to suggest that we expect children to walk that distance. It is just a way of deciding whether you should pay for the travel or whether we should pay.

July 2008