An 11-year-old girl was left in tears on her first day of school after the bus driver reportedly refused to stop, leaving her stranded more than half a mile away.

Transport company Arriva says it is investigating after a complaint from the mum of the pupil, who felt 'confused and disorientated' after the incident.

Amanda Green, from Larkfield, told KentOnline that her daughter Abigail needed to get to Aylesford Secondary School for her Year 7 transition day on June 29.

Abigail made sure to get up early and had planned the whole route to her new school. However, the bus she wanted to get originally at Springfield Road was cancelled, so she decided to get an earlier bus from the motorway bridge stop - which has more frequent services.

The 38-year-old mum, who runs a dog daycare business, said: "The bus was the easiest option of transport, and it was her first time getting the bus on her own.

"Knowing that Abigail wanted to get the bus from September, I encouraged her to try it out on this day, as it can be very daunting.

"My husband and I showed her the route before she set off and explained where and when to press the bell."

The 11-year-old got on a 71 bus at around 7.25am in the direction of Maidstone.

As the bus approached her stop on Teapot Lane along London Road, Abigail walked to the front after pressing the bell twice.

The bus driver then drove past the stop and allowed her to get off at the next one, next to Aylesford Retail Park, 0.7miles (1.12km) away from the school.

"When she got off she was confused and disorientated," Amanda explained. "My daughter lost her bearings and ended up walking the wrong way - she went down Hall Road and got as far as the cemetery.

"She called me in tears, completely distraught. I'm a working mum so I couldn't leave the house to go get her, I felt helpless.

"In the end her dad who works in London called her and talked her through using Google Maps."

After posting a disappointed comment on Facebook, Arriva advised Amanda to make a formal complaint on their website.

The customer services management team responded with: "The Maidstone Depot Manager has advised that operational difficulties at the depot, will occasionally result in buses being unable to run to their advertised route or destination.

"This would mainly be as a result of the depot not having a vehicle to run the route or suffering with last minute staff absence.

"I can confirm that some services were unable to run on the day in question. I understand this did inconvenience some passengers but please be assured that this step was taken as a last resort."

On her Facebook message, Arriva commented: "We apologise for this, however on occasions our service is operating late we are required to get the service back to its original timetable state as instructed by the traffic commissioner."

Amanda added: "Considering the bus ticket for the day cost me £4.60 and the anticipated cost for a yearly school bus pass from Springfield Road, Larkfield to Aylesford is £450, this is an absolutely disgraceful attitude to have and compromises the safety and well-being on everyone on board.

"Luckily Abigail had her phone and was eventually okay, but an elderly person in this situation might not be able to walk as far.

"The scariest thing was imagining if she had got off at the next bus stop and went missing - we wouldn't even be looking in the right place, as we wouldn't have anticipated her getting off at that bus stop.

"It won’t be the last time this will happen and they need to be held accountable."

The mum-of-two says Abigail initially felt very grown up with the idea of getting the bus, however this then "disappeared into stress and anxiety".

The family have now decided that she will cycle to school instead.

A spokesman for Arriva said: “We can confirm that this has been logged with our local depot team who will now perform an investigation and will be dealt with as per the companies policy and procedures.”