Assistance with home-to-school travel costs 5-16 year olds

Free bus travel for under 18 year olds

All young people under the age of 18 in full time education can travel for free on London’s buses and trams and we are expecting that most pupils will be able to make their journeys by bus.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will consider applications for free school travel up to and including Year 11 where it is not possible for the journey to school to be completed by bus only, either because the journey would take too long or because it would involve more than two changes of bus.

• Qualifying criteria
• Method of payment
• Application form
• Contact

Qualifying criteria

To qualify for assistance with tube fares to school:

• All applicants must reside within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

• Pupils must attend their nearest suitable school
  
  The Royal Borough will take into account school preference based on grounds of religion or belief, but if an application was not made to the nearest suitable school of the desired type or a place was offered and not accepted, assistance with travel costs will not be awarded
  
  If a parent is not successful in obtaining a place at the nearest school of their choice they must supply evidence of this.

• The nearest suitable school must be more than 2 miles from the parental home for pupils under 8 years old and 3 miles for pupils aged over 8 years old.

• A bus journey would take more than 45 minutes or 1 hour respectively for a primary school pupil or for a secondary school pupil.

• A pupil is in receipt of a Statement of Special Educational Needs.

• Exceptional circumstances, such as a medical condition, would prevent a pupil from walking to school. (independent evidence would be required).

Method of payment

If your child is eligible for financial assistance payment will be made in the form of the cheque which you can use to top up your child’s Oystercard at the commencement of the academic year.

Payment will be calculated in accordance with the cheapest fare available to Oystercard users and will cover the cost of the return home to school journey during week days and term time only.

Application form

Download and print an application form:

• Application form for assistance with school travel for 5-16 year olds [PDF file] (file size 81Kb)

By Post

You may request for a form to be sent to you by contacting:

The Student Support Service
Town Hall
Hornton Street
London
W8 7NX

Telephone: 020 7361 3009

Contact

• Student Support.