Richardsons Travel, which has provided bus services for pupils attending schools in Liphook for decades, went into administration during half term.

Bohunt School, which used eight buses by the Midhurst-based coach company to provide student transport, confirmed some alternative arrangements have been made for its pupils.

They affect approximately 400 students who are Hampshire residents and receive local authority home-to-school transport, as well as 300 non-Hampshire and out-of-catchment students and four West Sussex pupils.

To get students to the school on Monday morning, a selection of six coaches were drafted in, which included Stagecoach, Portsmouth Coaches, D&P Coaches and Farnham Coaches, negotiating their way through a gridlocked Liphook centre.

A spokesperson for Bohunt School told the Herald: "We have been working hard to find replacement bus services for all our students and are happy to say we have done so for 95 per cent of them, including those out of catchment.

"As soon as we were informed about the situation, staff - including those on annual leave - worked tirelessly to ascertain the full picture, inform families and all other necessary parties and find replacement bus services.

"We have worked with Hampshire County Council and West Sussex County Council and are happy to say that together we have secured bus transport for the vast majority.

"Students’ learning is of paramount importance to us and the benefits of bus-to-door travel are numerous. We have an extensive extra-curricular offer at Bohunt, with most students doing after-school clubs, sports fixtures as well as receiving extra support.

"It is this safe, reliable provision we are working relentlessly on restoring for all those students who use it.

"We have interim measures in place, including the school opening from 7.30am to mitigate any local traffic congestion and help families to balance work and family commitments, and we are running supervised activities after school until 4.30pm for the same reason.

"While it is ultimately parental responsibility to get their children to and from school, and Bohunt receives no extra funding for transport, we know how distressing this is for families who may have lost money after the Richardsons collapse.

"Parents are fully aware that as soon as we have the administrators details, we will share this information.

"We have been in constant contact, through half term and over the weekend, with parents and our headteacher has personally answered every email query any parent has had.

"Staff are fully aware of the situation and are on hand to support students in school if necessary. Some staff are lift-sharing with colleagues this week, to mitigate traffic congestion locally.

"We are working with affected parents to ascertain the number of seats required on each route so we can provide firm prices for services, with the possibility of extra stops and are very optimistic about being able to provide service to all affected students long term."

In a letter sent to parents last Sunday, headteacher Neil Strowger pointed out the interim arrangements are in place "for this week only", and that any new provider will only contract with the school directly, as opposed to Richardsons who ran "public services" which meant there was no contract with the school for their routes.

He said: "These contracts will be in the region of £60,000 per annum per service run.

"We receive no funding for school transport and will not be able to underwrite such a large liability. Accordingly, where there is insufficient demand or commitment from parents, services will not operate."

Hampshire County Council also advised parents that transport arrangements will change from this week and that these new services may take several days to bed in and some routes may have to be tweaked to provide operational reliability.