Cardiff Bus runs the school's service

Eleven-year-old Rachel Emery died in June 1999 when she fell under the wheels of the school bus as she was trying to jump on board outside Willows High School in Tremorfa, Cardiff.

The trauma has led to a number of improvements at the school, including better road safety education for pupils.

But paying for a learning support assistant to accompany pupils on their journey home is seen as a main way of ensuring pupils present no risk to themselves or others.

Headmaster Mal Davies said: "She will act as an extra pair of eyes to ensure that youngsters are behaving appropriately.

We never want to be exposed to that again Mal Davies, headmaster

"If youngsters are aware that there is someone there who is able to report anyone who is out of line, then we believe that is the greatest contribution we can make to pupil safety."

The school's governors have agreed to extend the hours of learning assistant Karen Beynon to allow her to sit on the bus' 20-minute journey into Cardiff city centre each afternoon.

'Horse-play'

Willows High School is not the only south east Wales school to suffer a bus accident tragedy.

In December last year, Stuart Rhys Cunningham-Jones, 12, from Ystradowen, a pupil of Cowbridge Comprehensive School in the Vale of Glamorgan, died when his bus home crashed down an embankment.

Calls for tighter school bus safety legislation intensified in the wake of the accident - which injured 10 other children - when pupils claimed "horseplay" and overcrowding aboard the double-decker may have distracted the driver.

Calls for new safety have grown following this crash in Ystradowen

Mr Davies said it was unfair to expect a bus driver to concentrate on his or her driving and keep an eye on dozens of pupils.

Safety measures introduced at Willows since the death of 11-year-old Rachel include issuing each pupil with a photo bus pass.

The aim is to encourage the bus staff and the pupils to get to know each other in the hope this will increase the drivers' authority with the youngsters.

The safety moves are all aimed at avoiding a repeat of the tragedy almost four years ago.

Mr Davies added that Rachel had been "vibrant, and full of life".

"We never want to be exposed to that again," he said.

"I'm confident the extra adult on the bus will prove to be a success in what is 99% of the time a safe and secure journey home," he added.