SIXTH-FORMERS at a York secondary school have been drafted in to help cut rowdy behaviour among pupils travelling to and from the school by bus.

Fulford School headteacher Stephen Smith has appointed teams of sixth-formers to act as bus prefects following concerns about pupils misbehaving.

He told parents in the latest edition of the school's newsletter, The Fulfordian, how, in November, he had highlighted the dangers of "a small number of pupils" misbehaving on the buses.

He said: "The behaviour of pupils here at school is excellent. At school, however, pupils are supervised; they are not supervised on the bus."

Following discussions with transport officers at City of York Council and consultation between the authority and its insurers, Mr Smith was given the go-ahead to appoint two to three sixth-former prefects to each bus.

"It must be stressed that their role is solely to monitor and report back to staff. They have no power to intervene physically in order to make pupils behave," he added.

The volunteers are being given training and guidelines for the role.

The school has employed sixthformers to supplement its lunchtime supervisors for a number of years.

Pupils are told to obey them and "sanctions" are imposed on pupils who ignore their authority.

Mr Smith said the system worked very well and he urged parents whose children travel to school by bus to tell their children to behave and to comply with the prefects.

"Failure to do so will result in them being reported to their head of year or senior staff, who will respond appropriately," he warned.

A spokesman for City of York Council said: "We do not have a major problem with unruliness on buses in York, but we are not complacent and we are supporting this scheme to ensure good behaviour on buses is maintained."

Updated: 11:00 Wednesday, March 06, 2002