Pupils told: Stay in your seat and behave

Pupils are being given their own allocated seats on their school bus in a bid to tackle unruly behaviour and reduce accidents.

Incidents including children crashing through bus windows have prompted East Riding Council to operate the pilot scheme, which could be rolled out to more than 200 buses transporting 5,000 pupils.

In the latest incident, two girls fell out of a window on a single-decker transporting Cottingham High School pupils.

It followed an earlier accident in 2007 in which Hornsea School pupil Harry Sangwin, then 11, fell 12ft through a top-deck window of another school bus.

Now, another bus operator, which is concerned about pupils failing to sit in their seats, as well as causing damage, disruption and low-level bullying, has launched the seating allocation scheme on one of its routes.

All pupils travelling from Tickton to Beverley High School and Beverley Grammar School must now sit in seats allotted to them on the 946 bus operated by Lords Coaches, of Hull.

Bus company owner Nigel Lord says it has already had an impact.

He said: "It's early days but there has been a good deal of improved behaviour. All the kids sit down instead of milling about, they stay in their seats and they know they have responsibility for that seat if anything happens."

Beverley High School pupil Alyx Greenwood, 16, who travels on the 946 route, said: "I think it will make a difference.

"It means that the sixth form school bus monitors and the driver can keep an eye on all the people who cause trouble because they are put downstairs."

Beverley Grammar School headteacher Chris Goodwin said: "It's a good idea. The drivers have an enormously difficult task, particularly on the long bus runs, such as Wawne to Beverley, which is on a notoriously difficult road.

"Those children are unsupervised for what could be three quarters of an hour. We would never have that in a school classroom, we would not be allowed to. It's a big ask for children to be unsupervised for that period of time."

Jim Houghton, managing director of Ellie Rose Travel, withdrew his service transporting Cottingham High School pupils after two girls went through a bus window last October.

He said he would be willing to adopt the seat allocation scheme on his other bus runs.

Mr Houghton said: "We will try anything but at the end of the day, the only way you would stop it is by having an escort on the bus."

Parent Colin Sangwin, of Leven, whose son Harry, now 13, broke his leg after falling from a top deck bus window, also welcomed the scheme but claimed it must be part of a package of measures.

He said: "The problem with Harry was they were messing about. You can make all the rules in the world but I think the main problem is there is no-one responsible enough on the bus with authority to control the kids.

"Anything like seating allocation can't do any harm but more supervision is needed."