Sit Back and Relax
Loud. Uncomfortable. Rowdy. Boring. Long.
What’s the bus ride home from school like for you?
Imagine this. You finish a long day at school, board the bus, sit back, relax, watch a DVD and then arrive home all refreshed and ready to do your homework!
Well this is what it’s like for pupils in North Wales (maybe not the part about being ready to do your homework though!).
The school bus project ZOom is tackling anti-social behaviour and bullying by installing entertainment systems on some school buses to keep pupils entertained and sat in their seats.
The pilot is an experiment to see if this can help reduce bullying and take some of the pressure away from the poor bus drivers who have to keep an eye on the road and on the behaviour of the passengers.
Ysgol Dinas Bran in Llangollen is one of the schools piloting the scheme with entertainment such as music concerts, blockbuster movies and nature documentaries being shown on the GHA buses that ferry the pupils.
“It works!” says Berwyn, Operations Manager at GHA Coaches. “A driver turns his back on 70 kids and drives. If we can keep them occupied and entertained on the trip home then they are more likely to be well behaved and less likely to cause vandalism or distract the driver.”
The Welsh Assembly supported this radical approach after figures of anti social behaviour increased in the last few years. ZOom! is an anti-social behaviour project which the Assembly supports. It will be trialled for one year and then they will look to see if it works well in managing behaviour.
“At the end of each school day students board the bus for home animated and energetic, and noise levels can be quite distracting for bus drivers,” said Stuart Davies, Joint Head of Highways and Infrastructure for Conwy and Denbighshire.
“This may seem like a radical approach to school transport but if it reduces poorer behaviour and stops bullying it is well worth it. In America entertainment systems are already used to reduce antisocial behaviour, they also report positive results.”
Some of the age appropriate DVD’s shown this term are A Bug’s Life, Planet Earth, Pixar Short Stories, Earth Power of the Planet, Amazon with Bruce Parry, Cold Play, Wall E, Take That Beautiful World Live, Harry Hills TV Burp and Marley and Me.
ZOom have loads of other stuff that they do on your school buses. To find out about all their other projects visit the ZOom website.
