Is it okay to give lifts to your students? My son's piano teacher regularly used to pick my son up from school for his lesson. I have also on occasion picked up students from school for lessons, or run them home afterwards, always with the parents' knowledge / permission (except one occasion with an older teenager who had learning difficulties, no transport home, and didn't like buses).

But is there an actual policy on this?

Wouldn't you have to ensure you car was insured for business use. ?

Do you not need to be CRB cleared/checked for this?

I'm thinking more for your own benefit than anything else. Stupid litigous society that we live in

I've fairly regularly had to take pupils out of the school where I teach them to take them to an exam centre. I make sure I have the parents' written permission with me.

Seems to me that if the parents can't get their child to where they need to be, the only solution is for the teacher to take them, and I reckon that insisting on their written permission will cover me. I also make sure that the head of music or class teacher is informed of what I'm up to.

Since I teach in 3 schools at the moment, I have 3 CRB certificates, so that part isn't an issue. Actually I've got loads of CRB certificates from all the schools / local authorities I've taught for in the last few years!

I've given lifts to a couple of my college students before. I've always checked that it's ok with their parents and that the music service knows I'm doing it. Plus my car is insured for business use (although I'm not sure if that's relevant). The students have always been at least 18 as well.

Our music service does not allow tutors to give lifts to students.

It's fine for school teachers, unless our schools breaks the rules.

I used to go to an early morning swimming club, and our school minibus was particularly unreliable, plus sometimes there were only 3 of us who would turn up they never asked our parents, just assumed that their cars were the same as being transported by minibuses.

So the P.E. teachers used to give us lifts in their cars. This was sooo awkward, but luckily they were all female. I'm not particularly sporty (apart from swimming) though, so didn't really know them, and was amazed that they knew my name. One used to turn the radio on and sing along, another didn't have a middle back seatbelt that worked, so would tell the people either side to hold onto the girl in the middle tightly

I don't go anymore, it was so weird being in a teacher's car.

The onlt thing you must check is with your insurer, and your employer if you teach in that capacity. Otherwise it's up to you. In scouting we're advised never to take children in our car without another adult, for our own protection. And it's a right pain, and makes us look mean when we can't give lifts to far away things if no other adults are coming, to say nothing of the wasted petrol.

I pick up one child from her school and take her back to her house to teach her. The bus she normally takes is very slow, so by picking her up it saves her 30mins and means she gets a lesson on her preferred day!

Sadly, this is the society we live in today. Everyone is fearful of being guilty until proven innocent if a child makes some sort of malicious or other remark that is misinterpreted. This is why school teachers won't administer first aid in a lot of cases for fear of accusations of innappropriate physical contact

Soceity really must have changed since it had never even occurred to me that this could be a problem.

One of my secondary school teachers used to take me to and from school fairly frequently when I was in the last couple of years of school because her child-minder lived fairly close to me. We never had any written agreement (she just offered one day when she drove past the bus-stop and I was waiting) and on any given day my parents didn't know if I would be catching the bus or getting a lift.

I'm afraid it's always safer, in these circumstances, to take the "what if..." approach. At least if you have asked the question, you'll have considered the consequences. Just one "what if": if you have a car accident and the child gets injured, can you be sure that parents or insurers won't take a less charitable view than before the accident?

And one precautionary tale: a friend of mine very nearly lost his teaching job when he gave a lift to a pupil; for that particular school it was a complete no-no. 'Tread with caution', would be my advice, whatever your own views - those whose job it is to consider child protection policies might take a different view from you, particularly in a climate in which even the smallest risk is scrutinised. Given the recent news about nursery children and a female nursery helper in Plymouth, you can be sure that professionals' views of risk will be being reassessed again.

Thanks for your views, everyone - I really appreciate it. Yes, I can see it might be wise to think twice before I give lifts to pupils again. Unlike Clare 1986, they are usually under-18s as well.