What a long saga this whole 'bus to secondary school' has been for us the past 18 months.
It started when Rhiannon got accepted to go to UCTC and I immediately applied for a seat on the bus (that was in March 2017), only to be told that there were no seats available and I needed to reapply in August. Fine, since she wasn't starting until September 2017. So I did that again in Aug and was told that she could go on the waiting list but they wouldn't know for sure until October 2017. Our friends up the road had been through a similar ordeal so they coached us in who to contact and what to say, but this method didn't work for us the way it had for them and Rhiannon ended up not able to ride the bus all of 2017-8 school year, even though the bus stops nearly outside our door and we live the closest to the school compared to anyone else in the village who gets to ride the bus. It was so frustrating to deal with the county transport authorities on this injustice that I handed the whole project over to Rhodri. Anyway, since he has been the one on the front line of school runs and so forth, he would normally be the person to actually take Rhiannon to and from school. We put a positive spin on this and have been grateful for the 'quality time in the car' to and from school, about 15-20 min drive each way. But still, so unfair! Especially since Rhiannon's other classmate got a free space on the bus and lives further away, and nobody could explain why this was.
We tried again this summer for a place on the bus for the year 2018-9 and had the exact same experience as last year at first. But then it all kicked off a couple of weeks ago, and all the people who had seats on the bus in our village were told they lost their seats. So a group of parents (including Rhodri) got busy sending in letters and involving legal authorities and all sorts. I kept well away (it happened when i was in the US in early Sept) but was glad that Rhodri was part of this. So anyway, school started with hardly anyone on the bus from the village, and instead a couple of elaborate car pools were set up and everyone was just about managing to get to and from school. But then! Today! In the post! Arrived a bus pass with Rhiannon's name on it. And she gets it for free, and she will get it for the remainder of her years at this school due to a sort of lucky technicality which was the reason that her classmate originally got it last year. So actually, she should have had a free bus pass last year and the transport authorities must have known that but not wanted to admit their mistake.
Whatever. We are all just really glad that she gets to finally ride the bus! Who knows what will become of Tryfan's situation if he gets into the same school next year...
It started when Rhiannon got accepted to go to UCTC and I immediately applied for a seat on the bus (that was in March 2017), only to be told that there were no seats available and I needed to reapply in August. Fine, since she wasn't starting until September 2017. So I did that again in Aug and was told that she could go on the waiting list but they wouldn't know for sure until October 2017. Our friends up the road had been through a similar ordeal so they coached us in who to contact and what to say, but this method didn't work for us the way it had for them and Rhiannon ended up not able to ride the bus all of 2017-8 school year, even though the bus stops nearly outside our door and we live the closest to the school compared to anyone else in the village who gets to ride the bus. It was so frustrating to deal with the county transport authorities on this injustice that I handed the whole project over to Rhodri. Anyway, since he has been the one on the front line of school runs and so forth, he would normally be the person to actually take Rhiannon to and from school. We put a positive spin on this and have been grateful for the 'quality time in the car' to and from school, about 15-20 min drive each way. But still, so unfair! Especially since Rhiannon's other classmate got a free space on the bus and lives further away, and nobody could explain why this was.
We tried again this summer for a place on the bus for the year 2018-9 and had the exact same experience as last year at first. But then it all kicked off a couple of weeks ago, and all the people who had seats on the bus in our village were told they lost their seats. So a group of parents (including Rhodri) got busy sending in letters and involving legal authorities and all sorts. I kept well away (it happened when i was in the US in early Sept) but was glad that Rhodri was part of this. So anyway, school started with hardly anyone on the bus from the village, and instead a couple of elaborate car pools were set up and everyone was just about managing to get to and from school. But then! Today! In the post! Arrived a bus pass with Rhiannon's name on it. And she gets it for free, and she will get it for the remainder of her years at this school due to a sort of lucky technicality which was the reason that her classmate originally got it last year. So actually, she should have had a free bus pass last year and the transport authorities must have known that but not wanted to admit their mistake.
Whatever. We are all just really glad that she gets to finally ride the bus! Who knows what will become of Tryfan's situation if he gets into the same school next year...
No comments:
Post a Comment