A bus pulling up to a bus stop on a sunny dayWhy write a social story?

Social stories can be a great teaching tool for anyone who needs information to be tailored to their communication or learning needs.  

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Catching the bus takes many small steps in a particular order; it can take time and practice to get the hang of it. Metlink’s social story template guides users from beginning to end of their bus journey; helping to put the steps in context and making them more meaningful to the reader.    

Make your own social story

Use the template, information, and images below to write your own social story.

Download the template from this page then edit it and make the story your own.

Read the step-by-step instructions on how to catch the bus at the bottom of the page. Each step has a collection of images with it that you might like to use in your story. 

Social story template  

This template includes a customisable step-by-step story about catching the bus. Follow the instructions below to get started. The document is Google Slides compatible.

Download this PowerPoint file (PPTX 1.7 MB)

Save it to your device or drive and edit it in either PowerPoint or Slides.

Step by step: images and instructions

We’ve broken the process of catching the bus down into 8 steps.  

Each step has different elements for you to consider:  

Actions: what you need to do to complete the step.  

Considerations: things to think about to make the step successful.

Bus brain moments: times when understanding the bus system is important.

These elements help the story flow from one step to the next while prompting conversations about what needs to happen for the bus trip to go well.  

You can use our images or your own. We’ve sorted our images into the steps to catching the bus, but you can use them in any order you like. To use an image, click on the image or the download this image link and when it opens in a new tab right click on it, then either save it or copy and paste it into your story.  

Updated June 30, 2025 at 2:17 PM

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