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Whilst often overlooked as part of a school’s wider safeguarding strategy, ensuring pupil safety on home to school transport is vital for parents and school staff alike. Student safeguarding doesn’t stop at the school gates and it’s time to shine a light on this blind spot.
Kura’s 2022 survey revealed that 39 per cent of independent school leaders believe student safeguarding will pose a significant challenge over the next 12 months. In our newly published report, parents echoed these concerns. Here, we examine the current nature of the school run, why it needs to change and how Kura can help make this happen.
The nature of the independent school run
In the UK, 83 per cent of children attending independent schools travel to or from school unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. Independent school students also typically have further to travel to school, knowing where children are on their journey is of high importance to both parents and staff.
“Independent school students typically have further to travel to school.”
Despite this, only 13 per cent of parents say that their child’s school uses a home to school (H2S) service with tracking software. With high uptake of H2S services at independent schools, 88 per cent of those surveyed make use of the service offered by their school, and 24 per cent of children use this transport method for the school journey, school leaders have a prime incentive to provide this service for pupils and parents.
Encouragingly, 35 per cent of students at independent schools walk to school and only 21 per cent travel by car or taxi. It’s clear that there is a shift towards more sustainable transport methods and school leaders can accelerate this by introducing walking and cycling schemes, considering the School Streets initiative, and providing reliable shared transport that encourages parents to leave the car at home.
Why change is needed
In our research, 60 per cent of parents with children at independent schools said that they were concerned about their child’s safety and welfare on their daily journey; 26 per cent of these were very concerned.
The most commonly cited concerns were the behaviour of other children on the school run (71 per cent) and the danger caused by traffic and busy roads (70 per cent). Some parents are also concerned about the behaviour of members of the public, the unreliable nature of public transport and children disembarking at the wrong stop.
High traffic levels around the school gates also pose a hidden risk to children, exposing them to damaging levels of pollution. According to UNICEF, one in three children in the UK are growing up in areas with toxic air, most of which is coming from vehicle emissions.
“We’re passionate about ensuring every school can put student safety first.”
With safeguarding clearly a key concern for parents, independent schools that can provide reassurance through provision of a H2S transport service and use of tracking software, will stand out from the crowd. With budgets being squeezed and achieving new pupil admissions targets becoming a challenge, independent schools need to be in tune with parent priorities and help to take the stress out of the school run.
How can schools improve safety on the school run?
Despite the concerns raised, 48 per cent of independent school parents are not aware of an official policy at their child’s school to deal with safeguarding incidents on each journey. It’s clear that more needs to be done to ensure this isn’t a safeguarding blind spot – so at Kura, we’ve taken action to allow schools to easily safeguard every journey.
Kura has developed a series of transport safeguarding guidelines to provide schools with essential tips and considerations to maximise the pupil safety on the school run. These include guidance on selecting the right coach operator, keeping track of which students are on which vehicles, in-journey safety considerations, assessing route safety and having a Serious Incident Management Plan (SIMP) in place.
Technology also has a key role to play in enhancing student safety on the way to and from school which is why Kura has recently announced that we will be offering our leading transport safeguarding software free to all schools. Forever. We’re passionate about ensuring every school can put student safety first and that budgets shouldn’t be a barrier to this goal.
The software enables school staff and drivers to see which passengers are on board any route at any time, whilst tracking all vehicles. Students can also tap on and off the vehicle to confirm where they boarded and disembarked the service, and easy MIS integration and onboarding is included.
Provision of improved school transport, using the latest transport technology, can play a vital role in improving safeguarding, as well as enhancing student health and wellbeing. Whilst it’s encouraging to see good uptake of H2S services at independent schools, more schools need to introduce such a service to reduce the number of cars on the road, limit emissions and congestion, and provide a safer student school run.
Kura’s transport safeguarding guidelines – download here.
Kura’s transport safeguarding software is now available free to all schools. Forever. Sign up here to get started today.