How long is your school run?

2 mins from my house

Ours is a 15 minute drive. Not ideal but we chose to live in a quiet rural location outside of town so driving everywhere is the trade-off.

A 10 minute walk, en route to my work.

10 min walk or a 40 second drive if I'm running really late, its great

5-10minute walk along a footpath through fields. I can see the school from our bedroom windows across the fields. It’s a faff to drive and I love it. It’s a good state primary.

5 min walk, v happy no car is involved

5 minute drive or 30 minute walk. Not our choice. Our village primary is really over subscribed and we didn't get in as on the outskirts of the village. Local buses are really unreliable so has to be walk on days my DH needs to be in the office.

We have a 7-8 minute drive on a good day but today it took half an hour because of traffic, we will quite often walk because it only takes 20 minutes, but I was running late today and needed to get to work (because of the traffic, I was late anyway).

When I was in school however, my mum used to drive 40 minutes each way for me and my sister to attend an English speaking school - we lived in THE most Welsh part of Wales and the 2 other schools near to us were Welsh first language and while my sister and I can speak Welsh fluently, my parents could not so wanted us in an English school.

By yr 6 your DD will want to walk to school with friends. It's an important step IMO so if you can facilitate that I absolutely would.

9 minute walk each way for us.

Primary school and a 10 minute walk with DS - 5 if I am by myself!

I'm really shocked that some of these runs are so long. I honestly believe anything over 20 minutes borders on abusive. How can a child spend hours and hours each week strapped in place?? Worse than guantanamo.

I live 2 mins walk from the primary school and 20 mins walk from secondary school. It's great.

More importantly, I'd be reluctant to agree to a play date that took 40 mins round trip during the week. I'd be looking at areas which had good transport connections to the senior school and go from there - it's very important for older kids to be connected to their friends and not reliant on you.

5-10 minute walk (depending on how fast/distracted kids are) to primary. Secondary will be at least 30 minute bus journey as we live in a village

First school was 1 ish mile away, but I had to drive, as had to hoof it to work afterwards. Lots of people in this position.
We lived one of the furthest away.
Curreht school (since year 5) is in the next town, 4 ish miles away, she mostly gets school transport, but if we have to drive, we need to leave 30 min, due to traffic

Swings and roundabouts to both options at primary level

its nice to be able to walk and to have school friends on the doorstep for play dates.
but the school has to be good enough, and car journeys are a good time to really talk to your children , particularly as they get older and more sullen

3 minutes drive (normally I'd walk but it's a really steep hill and I'm heavily pregnant) then from parking to school gates about 5 min walk.

We're extremely lucky to live near a great school though.

6 miles (12-40 minutes each way depending on traffic)

primary is a 3min walk. Secondary they are on school transport so nothing for me at all

30 mins there but she gets the school coach back.

40 minutes to the grammar school. To be fair, it was a 10min drive to the bus but with Covid I drove her for the last 2 years. We lived in one of the areas with extra restrictions due to the prevalence.
It was worth it.

Far better if you’re close enough to walk. But I’d say 20 mins would be my absolute max. But is it 20 mins from your house including traffic? Here it can take 30 mins to go 3 or 4 miles.

Also bear in mind secondary schools as primary time soon goes. If the kids are all local they might all get a place at a school your child is out of catchment for. Check the local secondaries before buying as you want to make sure ideally you’re in catchment for good secondary schools.

Yes and I agree with this. My experience is that alot of the kids at the school live varying distances. It's an independent school that is really the only one in our area that caters to children with autism, dyslexia and adhd adequately. So driving for playdates is pretty normal, but equally mine are not the only children in our town that go to the school- there are 3 other families in our own street alone, two of whom have children the same age.

Now they are older kids tend to go on the bus to the main town and meet up there.

I've done various length (and transport commutes)

I currently have a 30 min each way, and kids in 2 different schools (variable difference in end time), so I'm spending 3-4 hours a day in the car - and TBH it's a bit much, but the children are settled in the schools, and with the rest of their upheaval I'm not going to change them, and I'm just going to suck it up for the next few years and try not to burn out squeezing job and house in around it.

Personally, a 10 min walk is ideal in my mind, up to about 20 minutes (drive or walk) I don't really mind, anything over 20 mins needs a lot (especially if traffic is involved that can extend that)

40 minutes each way and as I now work from home (before I worked in the same town as the school) it means I am driving 160 minutes roughly a day- barring massive travel delays or temporary traffic lights etc.

Honestly- I don't mind it. But it takes a chunk out of the day that can be annoying. And it's expensive with petrol etc. I have a small fuel economic car also. But it is worth it as the school meets my DS1s needs perfectly. There is a school bus but with 2 children on it at a cost of £6 a day each that is more expensive and takes WAY more time than me just doing it.