Eltham College Coach Routes

Once your child is registered with Kura (please see the Kura Leaflet, below, for details on how to do this) the school will receive a notification that your child will be taking the coach from September 2022.

Kura’s coach service will NOT be running on the Induction Day (Friday 2 September 2022). The service will commence on Monday 5th September 2022.

School photographs are taken of new students on the first full day of school. These are used for their coach passes, which are issued during the first week.  The coach company will accept pupils without a coach pass for the first week and will manually log details of your child onto their coach until their pass arrives. Following this, all students must tap their cards on to board any Kura coach service.

For the first week of the new school year, members of staff are ready to greet Junior School pupils at the Senior School.  Thereafter, your child will make their own way to the Junior School along the path with other coach friends.

All of the Year 3 pupils and, pupils who are new to the coach service, meet Ms Livett after school. Her role is to ensure they get onto their correct coach and that they have their seat belts fastened.

During the summer term, Year 3 pupils are allowed and encouraged to find their own way onto their coaches whilst Ms Livett still shadows the pupils and checks that they are on the right coach and have their seat belt fastened. Just before the end of the school year, they will take the Coach Readiness Quiz to make sure they are aware of all points they will have to remember when making their own journey to their afternoon coach in Year 4.

All other year groups will make their own way to the Senior School car park.

There are two sets of coaches that leave school on the homeward journey. The ‘Pm’ coaches that leave at 16:05 and the ‘Late’ coaches that leave at 17:50 for those children that want to attend After School Clubs, After School Care or are on fixtures.

Again, Ms Livett takes the ‘Late’ coach Junior School users down to the Senior School where they pick up their coaches.  Please note that not all the ‘Pm’ routes have a ‘Late’ equivalent so please check this.

On the odd occasion were you have to change your child’s homeward arrangements, for instance they can’t attend their After School Club or they need to attend After School Care, you MUST notify the Junior School Office by email on [email protected] or the Senior School Office on [email protected]. 

On the last day of each full term, the arrangements are slightly different. School finishes at noon and there is only one coach service and it is described by Kura as the ‘Pm’ coach, but it leaves school promptly at 12.10pm. You should register your child for the ‘Pm’ service on Kura, arrange for someone to collect them from their stop and make them aware of their going home arrangements. The school endeavours to send out an ElthamPost reminder about this ahead of the end of term.

A number of the older children carry mobile phones for the coach journey, however Kura notifies you of any issues that may arise owing to traffic problems etc.

If you feel that you would like your child to carry a mobile for the journey that is fine, but it will be at your own risk. We suggest that Junior School children memorise a contact telephone number. However, in the first instance we advise your child carries your contact details on them – this is just a precautionary measure if the driver’s equipment stops working for any reason and he needs to get in contact with you – this is extremely unusual – but we suggest it in any case.

The coach service is efficient, however on the odd occasion, owing to road works and other issues beyond their control, it is good to establish contact with other parents whose children take the same coach route for such events.

If Junior School students mislay their coach pass or it stops working they must see Ms Livett who will get another issued. For Senior School students, please have your child visit the School Office to request a new card which will be available to collect on the day. Charges may apply for replacement cards.

Kura are working hard to track our performance and make meaningful improvements to our services. We want to be upfront with you about our service performance and have shared data, below, regarding our key metrics of arrival time to first stop and arrival time to the College in both the AM and PM during the Michaelmas Term. Particular attention will always be given to delays that affect the registration period and impact students’ learning day.

Measures have been put in place with the drivers of both West Wickham and Farnborough routes to ensure an earlier departure from their depot to improve their arrival times at their first stop.