Covid-19 school guidance

Visit our webpage for more information and support for young people.

If they live close enough, children are encouraged to walk or cycle to school, both for their own safety and to relieve pressure on reduced capacity public transport. Visit the My Journey Wokingham website to see suggested walking routes.

There are a number of measures parents and their children can take in order to keep school buses safe.

Before the school journey

• Children and young people aged 11 and over are encouraged to wear a face covering on public transport and dedicated school transport
• Journeys may take a little longer to ensure no crowding when getting on or off the bus, please be patient and wait 15 minutes past the scheduled pick-up time before reporting any non-arrivals
• When boarding and alighting from the vehicle, do so in a calm and orderly manner maintaining a distance from the passenger in front of you
  
  

During the school journey

• Where a bus pass is required, it must be shown to the driver rather than handing it to them to hold
• Passengers must fill from the back of the bus until it arrives and then leave from the front, avoiding passing others in the aisle.
• Where available, passengers must use the hand sanitiser provided when entering and leaving the vehicle
• Passengers must treat all people at the designated stop, including other passengers and staff, with respect and understand that some may be at higher risk
• Passengers must not intentionally cough, spit, or invade another passenger’s space or the driver’s space
  
  

At the end of the school journey

• Passengers must take all belongings with them when exiting the vehicle, it will be more difficult to return forgotten items during this time
• Passengers must check the area outside of the vehicle doors before exiting and adhere to the appropriate and current social distancing legislation, there may be other students or public passing the vehicle
  
  

Students and parents can also read the UK Government guidance or the Home to School Transport code of conduct addition (PDF document) if they are unsure of the behaviour expected.

Train travel

If your child gets the train to school, it is advised that they wear a face mask during their journey. For full rules on public transport use visit the UK Government website.

Students in Wokingham Borough are likely to get the train with either Great Western Railway or South Western Railway depending on where they are travelling.

You can read the Great Western Railway guidance for Covid-19 travel.

You can read the South Western Railway guidance for Covid-19 travel.

• More on the UK Government’s Covid-19 webpages

• More on the UK Government website covering what parents and carers need to know about early years providers, schools and colleges during the Covid-19 outbreak

• More on the UK Government guidance for parents and carers of children attending out-of-school settings during the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak