St Faith’s Home to School Transport Services
Terms & Conditions
Introduction
These terms and conditions apply to all members of the St Faith’s School Community who make use of the home to school transport services provided by Kura on behalf of St Faith’s School.
By placing a booking with the St Faith’s Home to School Transport Services (HTST), all users acknowledge that they have read, understood, and accept the Terms and Conditions set out in this document.
Service Overview
Home to school transport services provided by St Faith’s School is intended to provide a sustainable, convenient, and cost-effective means of transportation to the school, and to reduce the impact of commuter traffic in Cambridge.
The home to school transport service is provided on a fully managed basis by Kura. All bookings are made through the Kura app or portal. Bookings can be made by parents of children in St Faith’s and where there is sufficient capacity, also to the pupils of other independent schools in Cambridge schools which currently include Stephen Perse Foundation, Heritage and St Mary’s School.
Bookings
An expression of interest survey will be launched in the Summer Term of the preceding year to investigate demand for proposed HTST routes. At this stage, no bookings are taken, and spaces and/or routes are not confirmed.
From the expression of interest information, in liaison with Kura, St Faith’s will investigate route feasibility and route passenger capacity. Routes and capacity with then be determined and arrange through the Kura app.
Parents must register/re-register pupils each year for the HTST services, using the Kura app. Booking windows and registration periods will be communicated throughout the year together with details instructions to support users through the process.
Bookings of HTST services will open in the Summer Term of the preceding year, with spaces offered on an annual commitment basis. Journeys will be offered as a single (not return) to provide maximum flexibility to passengers with priority given to those who wish to book for the whole academic year.
St Faith’s offers HTST bookings to St Faith’s users first, on a first come first served basis.
Ad hoc bookings are available and are to be booked via the Kura app or portal. Bookings will open shortly before the beginning of the Michaelmas term. The addition of ad hoc bookings provides additional flexibility to those children not able to commit to the same booking pattern each week.
Bookings via the Kura app or portal are capacity-linked, and you will not be able to make a booking if the bus is full.
Bookings must be made for all journeys. If a journey is made without a booking additional charges will apply.
St Faith’s offers HTST bookings on a first come first served basis. Although St Faith’s will do its utmost to accommodate all requests for use of the services, St Faith’s has no obligation to increase capacity on any route.
Booking confirmation is provided in the Kura app or portal at the final booking confirmation stage. Please consider your children’s after school activities before making your bookings.
The school cannot guarantee providing a place if a specific route is running at full capacity, and demand is not sufficient to either increase the size of the vehicle or provide an additional vehicle. Where this is the case, pupils will be placed on a waiting list.
Bookings for siblings of St Faith’s children who are attending other schools will be considered, subject to availability. Please contact Mrs Karen Rouse ([email protected]) to discuss this further. Please note all morning journeys will end at St Faith’s and any onward journey will not be part of the home to school transport service.
Payments and Charges
Payments are made via Kura Pay, either in full or by monthly direct debit in advance. Pupils will not be able to use the HTST service until payment has been received. Failure to make payment will result in the forfeiture of the space which will then be made available for other parents to book.
Charges are based on the Zone within which your child joins/disembarks the bus. Parents will be advised of the charges at the time of booking.
Changes to the Service
Any changes to a pupil’s use of the service must be made on the Kura app or Kura portal. Any associated costs will fall to the parent.
St Faith’s reserves the right to make alternations to the advertised routes and will provide reasonable notice of any such alternations. Examples of alterations include, but and are not limited to removal of a service due to insufficient demand, changes to the routes, changes to the bus stop locations.
Removing your child from a booked service
St Faith’s reserves the right to cancel any route that does not have sufficient interest to operate a regular HTST service. In such cases users will be given at least one month’s notice and payments will be refunded.
For safeguarding purposes, it is imperative that any changes to a pupil’s use of the HTST service the parent is responsible for updating their child’s booking through Kura.
If you wish to remove your child from the service entirely one term’s notice must be provided. Please cancel on the Kura app or portal and submit in writing to [email protected] copying in krouse@stfaiths.co.uk or charges will be forfeited in lieu. For example, a parent wishing to cancel HTST for the Summer term must give notice before the first day of the Lent term.
Journeys booked but not taken are non-refundable. Any journey cancelled, ad hoc, via the app, will not reduce the amount charged.
Bookings must be made for all journeys. If a journey is made without a booking additional charges will apply.
On the same day – cancellation of return journey
If your child no longer requires a journey which has been booked please remove your child from the journey using the Kura app or Kura portal.
If your child is at the school but will not be returning home on the bus it is essential that you cancel via the Kura app or portal by 14:00. This includes where your child is attending a sports fixture. We appreciate your assistance in ensuring the passenger list is accurate so that only those using the service are escorted to the bus by St Faiths staff.
Only in emergency situations should you email [email protected] for booking cancellations after the 14:00 cut off time.
Journeys booked but not taken are non-refundable. Any journey cancelled, ad hoc, via the app, will not reduce the amount charged.
St Faith’s reserves the right to remove a pupil from the service if you fail to inform us of your child’s removal from a booked service.
Ad hoc journeys and cancellations
Ad hoc journeys are permitted and must be booked using the Kura app or portal. Bookings are subject to availability.
Cancelled journeys will not be refunded.
Use of the Home to School Transport Service
The service is available to St Faith’s children in Years 1 to Year 8 and to pupils in Y5-Y13 with permission for onward travel who attend one of the Cambridge Independent Schools.
Parents are responsible for ensuring that their children travel safely to and from the school site.
Pupils must present their Kura card to the driver when embarking and disembarking from the transport. The driver will scan the card on a Kura smartphone. This allows for the tracking of a pupil on the HTST Services.
Parents are requested to remind their children that they are bound by the home to school transport service Code of Conduct contract in these terms and conditions. Any infringement of the Code of Conduct may result in the pupil being either suspended or excluded from the home to school transport service.
The driver will not wait beyond the published times for departure at any collection point. It is the parent’s responsibility to ensure the pupil is at the collection point in good time.
Children must be met at the drop off point unless permission has been given for the pupil to walk or travel home from the drop off point unaccompanied. St Faith’s will not accept parent requests to leave pupils at the collection point after the driver is due to leave the destination.
In cases where pupils are not on the unaccompanied travel list, and a parent has not collected their child at the designated return bus stop, the driver will wait for 5 minutes at the destination. If the pupil has still not been collected, the driver will inform Kura. Kura will attempt to contact the parent to seek to resolve the issue. If the parent cannot be contacted and the journey has further stops, the pupil will remain on the bus and may be collected at a later stop by their parent. Their location can be easily tracked by parents through the Kura App and Kura will attempt to contact the parent whilst the child is still on the vehicle. If the child has not been collected at the final stop, the driver will return to St Faith’s where the child will be disembarked from their journey via the Kura app and supervised by a member of the Senior Leadership team.
St Faith’s is legally obliged to liaise with Social Care in the event that a pupil has been brought back to school having not been met by a parent, the parent is unobtainable, and 60 minutes have passed since the non-collection of the child occurred. Contact is made via the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) on 0345 045 5203 or on 01733 234724 (out of hours Emergency Duty Team).
Users of HTST are required to use only one seat space, all luggage should be stowed safely (either under the seat, under feet, or above when on a larger vehicle). The driver should be consulted as to where any large items (such as musical instruments) should be stowed. On larger vehicles this could be in dedicated storage spaces, on smaller vehicles this could be at the back of all seats. No items are permitted to be stowed in the passageway through the vehicles. The driver has the right to refuse an item onto the vehicle if it cannot be stowed safely. Luggage is stored at the item owner’s own risk. Neither St Faith’s nor external HTST services provider accept any responsibility for damage to or loss of personal property.
HTST services are scheduled to arrive at St Faith’s in time for morning registrations and to depart at scheduled times after the end of the school day. Pupils may use late stay services at no extra charge until the scheduled departure time. Parents must make alternative transport arrangements for pupils who participate in before or after school clubs, performances and fixtures whose start/finish times do not coincide with the scheduled departure times.
Contact Details
If you have an urgent query about your child’s bus route during service, please contact Kura on St Faith’s dedicated number 020 3743 9209. For non-urgent queries please email [email protected]
Lost Property
Should your child leave any item on a school bus please contact the school Office on [email protected].
Code of Conduct
Children must:
- Be ready to board at the allotted time. If late, the bus will be unable to wait.
- Travel on their designated bus only
- Be polite and respectful to the driver and all other passengers at all times.
- Follow any instruction from the driver without question – it is for their safety and the safety of others.
- Stay in their seats with seat belts fastened.
- Look after their belongings and keep them in a safe place.
- Take litter off the bus.
- Maintain a reasonable noise level.
- Adhere to all school policies whilst on the bus, this includes expectations on behaviour.
Children must not:
- Distract the driver, except in an emergency.
- Ask to be dropped off anywhere other than their agreed stop.
- Eat or drink on the bus.
Relevant Policies
Relevant polices including the Safeguarding Children Policy are available on the school website.