Greater Manchester pupils aged 10 and 11 who are about to start secondary school will each get a booklet advising how to use buses, trains and trams.
The guide is the first of its kind in the country. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE), which has produced 26,000 booklets, hopes it will reverse the growing trend for parents to drive their children to school.
As well as teaching children to read a timetable and how to plan a journey, it gives advice about the best tickets to buy and what to do if they lose something on public transport.
There is also guidance about what to do if they see vandalism or want to make a complaint about a service.
GMPTE's strategy director Keith Howcroft said: "Starting secondary school can be a worrying time for some children, especially if they're having to use the bus, train or tram on their own for the first time.
Benefits
"We hope this booklet will help them travel confidently by making it easy for them to use public transport.
"It can often help if they practise their journey with an adult before their first day.
"There are many benefits for pupils who choose to use public transport to get to school, and it can help reduce the impact of the school run on rush hour traffic. Children are also likely to grow in confidence about using buses, trains and trams in their free time.
"Hopefully, this booklet will have a long-lasting impact on improving public transport use across Greater Manchester."
The booklet has a section aimed at parents, asking them to do a trial journey to school with their child before term starts.
Parents are encouraged to make sure their children know the safest route to and from the bus, train or tram stop or station and to have a phone number for the transport company in case the service does not arrive.
The PTE is distributing the booklets to education authorities, who will pass them on to schools.
Any parents or children who have not seen a copy of the booklet, "Using buses, trains and trams to get to school", can get them from GMPTE by calling 0161-242 6040. Tweet
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What a pleasure (almost) to drive around the area when the schools are on holiday. Something has to be done for the health of the children (who walk nowhere these days), and the sanity of the rest of us!
In the early 70's I used to spend my school bus fare on sweets, and walk the 3 miles to school. We never thought anything of it, and would do it in all weathers. Any kid who turned up at the school gate in their parent's car would be regarded as a cissy or mummy's boy. I know things have changed since then, but do the delicate little things have to be driven by car when school is just round the corner? God help them when they eventually start work.
I drop my kids off at school after dropping toddler at minders all on my way to work.
Which is 10 miles away.
There is no way I would let my 6 and 7yr olds go to school by themselves.
As I work part time I then walk
to school in the afternoon with
my toddler to pick my kids up
and take them to the park.
The school is a good 25 min walk away and its not safe anymore for lone children.
Bad drivers ,drunk drivers, paedo's - no one does time anymore and no bobby on the beat, they're all sat in cars eating donuts.
Why is cycling not mentioned as an option?
How to cut school-run jams? easy!
it's called WALKING!
No wonder some kids are obese and out of shape!
It never did me any harm to WALK to SCHOOL every day.
Honest, some kids are forced by their parents into lazyitis on a scale that 20 years ago didn't exist.
Wow. Parents, you're so fickle... You teach your child to walk and talk when they're little and then you take them to school in a CAR!!!
Parents get stressed because of the fact that they have to take their kids to school by car..well, the answer is DON'T!
The school I went to prided itself in it's bike sheds - always full every single day of term. I'll bet that there isn't a school in the area, nay borough, nay, county, that endorses the use of bikes as a means to get to school... as an alternative cheaper more viable method of transportation.
Then again, the kids would have to learn some road sense - in an apparent age when they have so little because Mummy/Daddy take them to school by car and all that is removed from them...
Did I say parents were fickle? I was wrong, I meant to say 'dumb' at times for not thinking about their childs welfare in that respect. The usual response to a parent trying to cross a road with a child is a shouted 'GEDDEER' (which is loosely translated as 'get here')
which doesn't tell a child when it's safe to cross a road...
Oh dear, seems like this could spiral out of control!