School Bus Service
Silkwood School offers a daily bus service for students travelling to and from our Mount Nathan Campus. We operate a fleet of modern, air-conditioned buses equipped with three-point seat belts.
This service runs four bus routes covering the Northern, North-Western, Southern and Central Gold Coast suburbs, linking with the Helensvale and Nerang Train Stations and the Light Rail Network at Broadbeach.
Students who travel by bus must be able to travel independently, this includes the ability to stay seated with their seatbelt on for the duration of their journey, and have familiarity with their bus stop. We require a parent or guardian to be waiting at bus stops to collect any students aged 12 or under.
To keep passengers and drivers safe, all students, parents, drivers and the School as the Operator are required to comply with the Queensland Government Code of Conduct for School Students Travelling on Buses.
We respectfully ask parents and caregivers to read these terms in detail and ensure their child is aware of their responsibility as a passenger.
We do not allow the use of personal devices on our Silkwood School Bus Service. This includes Smartphones, Laptops and Tablets.
- Devices will be required to be placed in the students bag and stay there until they depart the school bus.
- Headphones can be set up prior to boarding the bus with a podcast or music playing, however the device MUST remain in the student’s bag (once set, no adjustments).
Bus drivers will be monitoring this and any instance of device usage on the Silkwood School Bus service will be treated as a behaviour breach with consequences as outlined below.
Behaviour Breech Consequences:
1st offence: 3 days off the bus service (being the next 3 days the student is scheduled on the bus)
2nd offence: 1 week off the bus service
3rd offence: Permanently off the bus service
Any messages to students regarding stop changes are to be received before boarding the bus. Alternatively, you are welcome to call the school office on 5655 0300 any time up until 2:45pm to advise of a change to your student's bus journey for that afternoon and a message will be passed directly to your student in the last session.
Download the Passenger App
Our bus service partners with the TransportMe software system to ensure families have easy access to payments and service updates in real-time.
TransportMe’s Passenger App requires parents to create a Passenger Account to use the App. Parents can register an account by signing in with Google, Apple, or an email address and self-created password. For more information regarding the App and how to use it, please go to the TransportMe Passenger App User Guide.
USING THE BUS SERVICE - CHANGES IN 2024
As an extension of the existing TransportMe App Service, we have dedicated Bus Cards (SmartCards) that link to your Passenger Account. Smartcards will be used to tag on and off the bus, and funds will be deducted from your account with each ride. Smartcards are required for all School Bus travel in 2024.
- Bookings are not required, students need a Smartcard that’s linked to your TransportMe Passenger Account. Cards will be issued and managed by the school office team and are different from school ID cards.
- Term fee payments are not required, families pay per trip via the TransportMe Passenger App.
- Boarding without a card will result in a $5.25 penalty fee per ride (this will be charged as $5.25 at time of trip, plus a $5.25 manual administration fee).
- Your first card is issued free, a replacement fee of $2.50 applies if it is lost.
- If a Smartcard goes into a negative balance, it is capped at a value of -$10.50 or two rides before a student is unable to use the service.
- Credit does not expire; however, no refunds are issued. Please be aware of your automatic top ups and of how much credit you are applying when coming up to any student's discontinuation of using the Silkwood School Bus Service. Excess credit can be transferred to a sibling's SmartCard, or will be absorbed into our School Bus Service funding.
- It is a requirement of the bus service that all bus students are also registered with Helping Hands, please ensure their registration is up to date.
https://www.helpinghandsnetwork.com.au/register/
Pricing
Our bus service is available to families with a charge of:
| With Smartcard | Without Smartcard | |
|---|---|---|
|
Morning
|
$5.25
|
$10.50
|
|
Afternoon
|
$5.25
|
$10.50
|
Bus Routes & Timetables
Details of our bus timetables are shown below. Each service operates a morning and afternoon schedule*. To meet the needs of our growing school community, our bus routes are subject to change; all changes will be communicated in advance.
In the morning, students are required to be at the bus stop 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time.
In the afternoons, please allow 10 minutes on either side of the anticipated arrival time (for unexpected traffic).
*Schedule is subject to road conditions and at times may be affected by unexpected traffic delays.
Routes for 2024 will vary slightly for the Southern, Northern & North-Western bus runs – please ensure you check the below tables for stops and times.
Silkwood School also has an active carpooling community, feel free to join the initiative and connect with other Silkwood families via the dedicated Facebook group.
Bus Bookings
If you would like to make a booking or have any queries regarding the bus service, please email schoolbus@silkwood.qld.edu.au or call the office on 07 5655 0300.