SCHOOL HOURS AND THE JOURNEY TO SCHOOL

There has been an increasing recognition nationally of the benefits that can be achieved from schools that are in the same area staggering their schools start and finish times. These benefits are mainly that:

• Where schools are served by vehicles contracted by the Authority, these vehicles can transport children to more than one school. This can reduce the number of vehicles required and, therefore, save money.
• If schools in an area start and finish at different times, this can spread out the period during which parents are delivering their children to schools and so reduce general congestion. It is estimated that 20% of traffic on the roads in morning peak periods are on the school run.

As you will appreciate, home to school transport is an important issue in Norfolk, given the nature of the County. The budget amounts to over £20m per year and there are significant gains to be made if this budget can be managed as efficiently as possible. These gains could be both to the benefit of the County Council and to schools, both collectively and individually. For instance, some savings could be ploughed back into schools to fund some of the extensions to transport that are needed to implement the 14-19 strategy.

The County Council is keen to develop some pilot schemes around the County to test the extent to which the staggering of hours between schools to which contracted transport is provided can be mutually beneficial. These links can either be between primary and secondary schools in the same cluster or between neighbouring high schools. We are particularly interested in looking at the possibilities of coordinated route planning between schools likely to be in the same 14-19 collaborative.

Clearly, the financial benefits of such an approach do not apply to those schools whose pupils mainly live close to the school but the environmental benefits of neighbouring schools coordinating their hours, maybe as part of their School Travel Plan, are recommended.

If some of your pupils are transported to school and you would be willing to consider changing school hours, so as to reduce the cost of transport, I would be grateful if you could let us know on the attached form. No commitment whatsoever is implied by this. It merely indicates an interest in discussing the matter further to see what the possibilities are. If you want to discuss this letter, please contact
Mike Shenstone (01603 223475) or Mary Roche (01603 638155).

Yours sincerely
Mike Shenstone
Assistant Director (Pupil Access and Community Services)

School Staggered Hours Pilot Projects

I am interested in finding out more about possible benefits that would accrue from coordinating my school hours with other schools so to as to facilitate transport route planning.

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