Announcement

School travel information from September 2020

Bus Transport Regulations and Fares

January 2021 update

Following re-introduction of the national lockdown on 5th January 2021, and the very limited use of the BB buses subsidised by our schools, we have agreed in discussion with Thames Travel to suspend all the BB routes from Monday 11th January, until after February half term break, as it is not viable to continue to run these buses. 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused to the few students who have used these services to travel to school to attend the hub provision at school. Please note that Thames Travel have confirmed that termly or annual season tickets can still be used on other public service routes if you wish to make use of any alternative services to travel to school.

Thames Travel will be putting in place arrangements to refund prepaid termly or annual season tickets on a pro-rata basis. We will update all parents as soon as we know more on the process for requesting refunds.

Please note that the DC02 and DC06 buses, which are operated by Oxfordshire County Council for those students entitled to free school transport, will continue. If any changes are made to these services, we will update parents in advance.


Please could all parents ensure that their children are aware of the importance of wearing masks for the entire duration of their time on a school bus. This is a requirement for all students unless they have a health condition that exempts them from doing so in line with government guidance (see link below).

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengers#exemptions-face-coverings 

The school will continue to remind students of this requirement and we ask that parents also do this please. The bus driver is not expected to take responsibility for passenger compliance.  

Please could you:

  • Remind your children that they must not place bags on seats as this prevents or discourages others from sitting.
  • Ensure your child has a valid pass for the school journey.  We are sorry that the Covid 19 situation has driven the need to change a number of our buses from public services to dedicated 'school run' buses and as a result the pass options available are more limited this year (with the termly or annual passes the only ones available for the Thames Travel buses). DGS and SBS are already heavily subsidising the services to ensure they run for the benefit of all of our students and cannot subsidise the services further. We do now urge you to purchase passes quickly if you have not already done so. It is anticipated that regular checking of passes will be reintroduced shortly by the bus companies so students should always carry their bus pass with them whenever travelling to and from school so they can be shown to the driver if requested. 

Thank you very much for your assistance and understanding.

Information about transport arrangements from September 2020 can be found in the these documents below:

School Bus Information - update as at 31 December 2020

Mandatory face coverings on dedicated school buses - 09 December 2020

Transport arrangements from September 2020 - 16 July 2020

School travel letter from OCC - 16 July 2020

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