Bus Behaviour

Bus Behaviour

Southern Christian College expects that all students and staff, as members of a Christian school community, will maintain the highest standards of safety, behaviour and vigilance when using the SCC school bus or travelling on the Coal River, Wisby or Tassielink buses.

Students should aim to set standards of behaviour that would be a positive example to others. Ultimately travelling on a bus service is a privilege and needs to be treated as such.

Expectations of passengers:

To help ensure the safety of students and road users, the bus driver needs to be confident that the students within their care are acting in a responsible manner. For this reason, the following applies to any person travelling on an SCC bus and should also apply to any of our students and staff travelling on any other bus:

• Passengers will remain quietly seated except when entering and leaving the bus;
• Seatbelts must be worn at all times (if fitted);
• Noise must be kept to a minimum to avoid distracting the driver and out of consideration for other passengers;
• All instructions given by the driver (or teacher) are to be following promptly;
• Respect the school’s/provider’s property, including the bus seats and seatbelts.

The following behaviours are unacceptable:

• The use of inappropriate language;
• Interfering with another person’s seatbelt;
• Incidences of physical, verbal or cyber intimidation of other passengers, the driver or supervising teachers;
• Incidents of vandalism; 
• Consumption of food or drinks, unless specific permission is given by the supervising teacher and driver;
• Unacceptable behaviour should be reported to the bus driver or supervising teacher.

Potential responses:

Initially, the supervising teacher or driver will remind passengers of the appropriate behaviour required. In most cases this warning should be sufficient. If the behaviour persists, action may include one or more of the following responses:

• Allocation of a specified seat (usually near the teacher or driver) where the passenger will remain for the duration of the journey;
• Ongoing restrictions regarding seating arrangements;
• Restriction of privileges at school;
• Reparation costs for vandalism will be passed onto parents;
• Report to a member of senior staff for additional follow up;
• Communication home to parents regarding the behaviour.

It may be determined that an individual be banned for a period from travelling on a bus service if the behaviour is serious enough to warrant such a suspension or there is a repetition of poor behaviour.

External bus companies have a Passenger Conduct Code for school buses and will issue warnings and prohibit students from travelling on their buses if student behaviour is unacceptable.