AIBU to consider the furthest away secondary school?

30 min drive us this with traffic or without. How long is the bus journey. 30 mins on a Sunday is a lot different than rush hour traffic on a Monday morning.

I really wouldn't. We had to move in with my inlaws for 7 months a few years ago, 30 minutes drive from the dc schools. It was a massive pain and i hated it.

If you can afford the £600 a year bus fares could you not put that money towards stagecoach drama group and a rugby club? Then she can go to the local school and see her local friends after ?

30 minute drive but how long on the bus? And what if she wants to stay late for one of these clubs? Driving an hour every evening to go fetch her sounds like a massive commitment! And driving again any time she wants to see a friend.

I think it's lovely that my daughter goes to the school 5 minutes away. I'm in Scotland so we don't have as much choice, but there's not no choice at all. I stuck with the local school and don't regret it (it's not the best school in the city at all and has plenty of challenges). It's lovely that she can get home in the afternoon, it's wonderful that she can easily meet up with friends and it was hugely reassuring to her to be familiar with the walk and most of the people on her first day (she's autistic)

I'd take the money you'll save on the bus and the petrol and sign her up for a musical theatre class.

Dd did 2 x 30 minutes on the bus to high school and she survived. It was about 20 minutes by car to her friends.

She found the first three months awful but we were prepared for that. She had to learn about bumps in her road some time. We knew plenty of kids who went to the catchment high school and still had a bad time.

Go for wherever you think your dd will be the most fulfilled.

If there are enough rugby playing girls that school 2 can field a team, there must be a local girls team. Around me, every single rugby club (about a dozen within 30 mins drive) has a girls team.

With increasing pressure on school places unless this is an independent school I wouldn’t be confident you obtain a place at the further away school if u are out of catchment

My kids made loads of local friends going to the neighbourhood school. Having friends on the doorstep was great. When my daughter went to a further away primary, no one from her school lived nearby.

It is great to see them meeting up and walking to school in a morning.

My husband went to a school further afield and hexaays he really missed out on that.

There is no harm in looking.

But honestly, I wouldn't chose a school just because it has a girls rugby team. My DDs school team played one game last year as there's no one to play against!

There are more girls rugby teams opening though. The clubs join up as well, so each club doesn't need a full team in each age group.

Can she get home after clubs?

Definitely consider it. 30 mins is nothing and it'd probably do her good to step outside of her comfort zone. The closest school isn't always the best option.

Honestly I wouldn’t. All her friends would be 30+ mins away which is a nightmare when they want to go after school / meet up and weekends etc.
Id save the money and find out of school options. I’m sure there must be a girls rugby team within a 45 mins drive (easier to do this a couple of times a week for training then every day for school).

Can she get there independently?

30 mins is nothing. Only on MN do posters think 20 mins+ is a long journey.
Friendships change so even if she starts off going with friends, chances are they won't be friends by end of first term.

Id ask your DD as it’s her that has travel, settle and make friends.