STUDENT travel is about to be made a little easier thanks to a new free transport initiative launched by a local school.

Young people living in Bude and its surrounding areas are set to benefit after Launceston College announced the expansion of its free school transport service, providing transfers from the coastal town to the school, and home again, free of charge.

Launceston College, which is part of the Athena Learning Trust, has expressed that this development is designed to make travel to the college easier and to widen access to their high quality educational offering.

The school has stated that by extending the transport network, it aims to ‘remove barriers to education and ensure that more young people can benefit from the opportunities available at Launceston College’, after the school was recently ranked within the top ten schools across all of Cornwall.

This new provision is an expansion of a service already provided by the school, which sees free transport provided to those living in and around the Holsworthy area.

Families interested in finding out more about transport routes and availability are encouraged to contact the team via [email protected]

Mr Matthew Thompson, principal at Launceston College, has praised the move, stating that the school hopes to make it easier for the region’s young people to joining the college’s ‘thriving community’, as well as have options when it comes to choosing their secondary school.

Commenting, he said: “This expansion reflects our commitment to ensuring that every young person can access the full breadth of opportunities we offer. By removing travel barriers for families in Bude and the surrounding areas, we hope to make it even easier for students to join our thriving community and take advantage of our high quality curriculum and enrichment programmes.”