Thank you for your patience as we navigated our first bus journey today. It was fantastic to meet the children off the bus and see all their smiley, excited faces this morning.
It is important that your child gets onto the bus that they have been allocated from the bus service, this is not a decision that has made by the school and is organised centrally. Also, we would ask you if you do not have a bus pass or a bus allocation that you contact transport as soon as possible:
ptsinquiries@westlothian.gov.uk There appears to be a number of children who have not yet received a bus pass. If you are planning on using the bus whilst you are waiting on the bus pass please notify the school office.
Service SCH 503 – Mrs Morrison
Service SCH 504 – Mrs McKinnon
Morning routine:
The pupil support worker will get off the bus, show a sign with the bus number and call the number. Your child should then enter that bus and show their pass to the pupil support worker. It is important that they have their bus pass ready and show this as they enter the bus.
Home time routine:
A number of families had not completed or had missed the weekly register to alert us they were getting the school bus, therefore this system does not seem to be working. To ensure all children are in the correct place at the end of the day, starting from Wednesday 18th August we will operate a new system. We will take for granted that if your child has a bus pass they will get the school bus home on that day. If you do not wish your child to get the bus on a specific day/ date we would request that you email the school office on wlcalderwood-ps@westlothian.org.uk or phone the school office on 01506 280061 to notify us – stating their name, clan and bus number. Simply Play notify us each day of who they are expecting to collect from the bus.
If your child is not getting the school bus, we would request that your collect your child from Mid Calder at 3:25-3:30pm, so that we know they have been safely collected before our bus routine starts.
Bus route:
The bus route for 503 and 504 is as follows.
Morning:
Nethershiel Road, Northbound 6290CW01
Calderwood Road, Westbound 6290 CW04
Little Shiel Road, Southbound 6290 CW06
Main Street at Grove Public Bar
Hometime:
Tesco Express on Main Street (Simply Play Pick Up)
Nethershiel Road, Northbound 6290CW01
Calderwood Road, Westbound 6290 CW04
Little Shiel Road, Southbound 6290 CW06
Unfortunately the bus driver did take the wrong route home this afternoon and was late for pick up, I have reported these concerns to the bus company in the hope they will be rectified by tomorrow. I deeply apologise for any confusion or upset that this caused our children and yourselves.
I appreciate your time, patience and understanding as we resolve some of these operational concerns, although I do not underestimate how stressful these can be to you as parents/ carers.
In other news … your children have had a fantastic day in their clan, across clans and with their champions. Their resilience was amazing and their champions loved finally meeting them in real life! Thank you so much for preparing them for this transition, it was fantastic to see how they recognised so many faces and names from our Skypes and videos.
We can’t wait to see them all again tomorrow.
Kind regards,
Miss Burton
