As the cold evenings of winter dawn upon us, millions of students are having to leave and arrive back to their homes in the darkness. With both the bitterly cold climate and the lack of lighting the journey to school can become rather tiresome and at times scary.

Newstead Wood School hosts people who come from all over the borough. Therefore plenty of students take public transport to school, with one of the leading forms of transport being the bus. From buses ranging from Lewisham, Grove Park and even Surrey the public bus stop at Orpington Station is extremely convenient with students who then walk for 15 minutes from there to Newstead Wood. With bus passes only being £10 and the fee being free, the bus is the optimal mode of transport to school.

However recently students have found that the Orpington Bus Stop ,directed towards Bromley South, has been closed. This has caused a number of disruptions for students. Many have as a result taken the train which has meant that they have had to spend at least 75 pence on one train ticket at off peak time. For a week this would accumulate to approximately at least £7.50 per week. But for the people who choose to still pursue the route of the bus they are forced to get off the bus even farther away from the school causing a longer route to walk and inevitably running the risk of being late to school.

A student who has been taking the bus for the past 4 years to school,Amrit Sehmi, stated that she has been worried about this situation lately because “she did not want to ruin her attendance”. Not only this but due to the incident that occured at the Orpington Bus Station the previous week there have been even more transport issues within the Newstead Community making it even harder to arrive to school on time. Newstead Wood School put a comment on Twitter telling pupils that they were “aware of the potential travel disruption” and that students should “travel safely” and “contact the attendance line if you are going to be late, or are unable to travel in”.

Hopefully in the future there will be less frequent traffic incidents and students are able to arrive to school safely without disruptions or delays.