Guide to moving up to secondary school

Travel assistance for secondary age pupils is generally provided where the school is the nearest suitable school and it is more than three miles from your home address. Most children do not qualify for help with home to school travel and parents are responsible for the travel arrangements and cost.

Bear in mind that the order of your school preferences can affect whether free school transport is available. If you do not include your nearest school (anywhere in your list), you are unlikely to be eligible for free transport to a school further away.

Parents are responsible, in law, for ensuring their child attends school so you should consider the daily journey when applying for schools. If it is not possible to walk to school because of the distance involved, you could consider using public transport or car sharing. Most schools have school travel plans and are working with parents to reduce their car use.

You can check if your child would be entitled to free school transport by using our Free School Transport tool.

This checker measures the length of the journey to school and includes any extra entitlements currently allowed under the Council’s School Transport Policy. If you do not include a preference for your nearest school you are unlikely to be eligible for free transport to a school further away.

For more information, including guidance and policy documents, see our school transport web pages.