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Welsh pupils to have school journeys tracked by sat-nav

1 min read Education Youth Justice
Parent and teachers are set to track Welsh children on their journeys to and from school with sat-nav technology.

Pupils will have satellite navigation swipe cards that allow parents to follow their school bus journeys online. If children misbehave, drivers can alert teachers using a screen that shows them pictures of all the pupils on the bus at that time.

Children's movements will also be recorded in a database so that schools can check up on truancy.

The system is being piloted in North Wales in May. It is one part of an initiative called Zoom! being piloted across six counties in North Wales this year, led by Denbighshire County Council.

Pupils are also being encouraged to register as undercover "bus angels" and report bad behaviour such as littering or bullying anonymously online.

Project Officer Shelly Barratt said that Zoom! aims to protect bus drivers and help parents keep track of their children. She said: "Children are often playing music, listening to iPods and being noisy on the bus. It's hard for drivers to know how to deal with them. Behaviour could become a problem if we don't take action now."

Data on children's movements will only be available to parents with passwords to a website. The findings of the pilot scheme will be presented to the Welsh Assembly Council next year.

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