Frequently Asked Questions
1. How many people are able to join HSAC?
Exclusive to 60 people in total = 30 memberships if no one adds additional add ons. Our goal is to have 1 bus allocated for the Hunter Valley areas and 1 bus for the Central Coast. We want this to be inclusive to the homeschool community but still have the small community feel. Considering the amount of interested and the size our Facebook group, we are working on a way to potentially make this available for more.
2. Are there seatbelts on the bus?
No, they are your standard public transport buses
3. Is there air conditioning on the bus?
No, we have windows that open up instead that create a nice natural breeze.
4. What are the pick up stops?
- Maitland Station
- Carpark crn of Stanford and Main Rd opposite Caltex 195 Main Road Heddon Greta, Kurri Kurri
- Ampol, 119 Stenhouse Dr, Cameron Park
- Crn Mandalong Rd and Freemans Dr, Morisset
- Sparks Road carpool car park, Warnervale
- Ourimbah Interchange Carpark, Ourimbah
- Shell, 6 Central Coast Hwy, Kariong
5. What are the ages of the children joining?
We have a lovely fairly even variety of ages of children from 5 - 15 years. We also have a small group of children under 5 years too which is lovely at our weekly social club workshops.
6. When and how long is the membership available to sign up to
New members can sign up during week 8 in Term 4 - week 1 in Term 1. For our annual intake.
7. What is HSAC future plans for how the membership will operate
Our goal is to eventually have a bus allocated to certain regions e.g. North and South Hunter Valley regions, North and South Central Coast regions. As well as doing themed bonus excursions for specific age groups. This will further enhance connections with other homeschool members located in your area and building connection with one another.
8. Can you swap out the adult attending on the day if needed?
Most definitely! If you are the primary carer for your child and unable to attend an excursion, you are able to have another carer to look after your child for that date. Alternatively if your share care with another parent or know some dates may be shared between another carers that is okay too. The only requirement is that any carer joining has a working with children's check, prior to joining as a legal requirement being around other children.
9. Can you join the excursion without the bus and meet up with the group on the day?
Unfortunately not, having families joining our excursions separately from the bus was something we did consider when creating HSAC. However considering HSAC is a brother business to Bangin Bus Tours and everything we do is under our initial company for legal purposes it isn't viable for us.
From a logistical view, our goal is to create ease and convenience. If managing multiple buses on our excursion dates and coordinating our members as well as additional people that are meeting us to join is also undesirable as we would always run the risk of others being late and delaying our excursion experience/ tour. I know this may seem minor, but overall this does impact the experience for everyone.
10. Why can’t adult's join for free or be at a reduced cost?
Adults still require the same fees and entry charges for all of the venues and activities we have our excursions at. We were trying to look at ways to reduce the cost for adults as we know the focus is around the children experiencing the excursion and adults typically are supervising. But for the excursions we have planned, the adults will still be just as involved as the children.
In relation to the bus space, adults still take up another seat, so it's not possible to have a reduced price for the same product/service.
This is what inspired us to create the Navigator and Explorer option for children to join our excursions on their own without an adult, from the ages of 7 years +