We have some documents which will help you understand our home to school transport policy.

The document entitled "A guide to home-to-school transport in Surrey for 2011" and "A guide to home-to-school transport in Surrey for 2012" contains information to help you consider whether your child may be entitled to free home-to-school transport.

The document "My child is entitled to free home-to-school transport. What happens next? contains information that will help you deal with certain issues which arise from time to time with home-to-school transport. They are mainly to do with safety and you should discuss these matters with your child.

If you have been allocated a Surrey community, voluntary controlled or foundation school in the normal admission round (to start school in September in Years Reception, 3 or 7), there is no need to complete an application form. We will automatically assess these applications. If your child is eligible for free home to school transport you will receive notification from The Admissions and Transport Team.

If your child has been allocated a voluntary aided school or you are applying for a school place at other times during the year (if you have moved into the area) you will need to complete this online application form.

You can apply for transport on denominational grounds to a voluntary-aided Catholic or voluntary-aided Church of England school. As well as completing the free home to school transport application form you will also need to complete the appropriate denominational form (attached below in pdf format) which you should print, and then arrange for it to be signed by your parish priest (Catholic) or minister (Church of England), depending on the denomination of the school. If your child has been allocated a place at St Bede’s secondary school you need to complete the denominational form attached for that school below. More details on eligibility for transport to schools on denominational grounds can be found via Denominational Transport.

Please return the completed form to The Admissions and Transport Team, Quadrant Court, 35 Guildford Road, Woking, GU22 7QQ.

The following points are taken into account when assessing applications for free home to school transport for pupils aged under 16:

• If, at the time of application for admission you could have applied for your nearest school, but chose not to, and this school subsequently became full or had no vacancies, your child would not usually be eligible for free transport

• If you apply for a school place at a school other than your nearest, you will be eligible for free transport only if the nearest school is oversubscribed and you would not have been offered a place.

• If you are moving into the area, your nearest school will depend on the availability of school places at the time of your move

• You should be aware that if your child is granted transport to a school further away due to the lack of places at nearer schools, it may not necessarily follow that your younger children will also get transport to attend that school. This is because places may then be available at nearer schools

• If your child is transferring to the junior stage of education, your nearest school with places may not necessarily be a Junior school. You should also check any nearer all-through Primary Schools

• If your child is attending a voluntary aided Church of England/Catholic Church school for religious reasons, the nearest school will be the nearest school of that denomination and the denominational form needs to be signed by a minister of the appropriate church. This only applies to voluntary aided schools, and does not apply to voluntary controlled church schools
  

Requests for transport are not usually granted outside of the normal policy. Although there is no statutory right of appeal for transport assistance the Authority will consider written representation under their Transport Case Review procedure where parents feel that they have a further exceptional case for special consideration and can provide full documentary evidence to support their case. Please note that we reserve the right to verify any evidence received.