How long does it take your DC to get to School/College?

There are many who don't go onto do extra studies and if they can find a job many of them won't be in until gone 6pm, so I'd say if it's a better college then seriously consider it. When I first left school I work fulltime and didn't a part-time college course, so was regularly out of the door just before 8am, sometimes I'd finish early and get home 5.30pm, but at least twice a week I'd be back nearer 7pm and on one occasion it was nearer 9pm, so it can be done.

Talkin - tbh you don't know where I live or have lived and it is certainly not the centre of a city. Where in my post did I criticise anyone?? I was giving my opinion.

If you read the OP's opening post she said " We have two 6th Form Colleges in town. Both within walking distance or a short bus ride "
So I was replying with that as a factor. She and her DD do not necessarily live in a rural area and it was to her I was replying.

Bonzo
For kids who live in the rural areas round here - Cranborne Chase, Test Valley, New Forest, Meon Valley - an hours journey is just the reality and the catchment areas of sixth form colleges are 40 miles wide (Peter Symonds, Brockenhurst College and Sparsholt College to name just three)

Criticising people for NOT doing sixth form near home just shows how little you have been outside the big smoke.

Mine are lucky, as I work about half a mile from their school. So they get a lift in the morning; takes 15-20 minutes by car.

The pick-up is harder; there used to be a school bus that stopped at the bottom of our drive, but it was cancelled last year. There is a bus from the "other" secondary in town which they can hail and jump on, but I often just pick them up. We live in a bit of a public transport void unfortunately; I would be delighted if they could use public transport, and happy for them to travel for up to an hour if necessary, but it isn't very practical.

Major reason DD didn't try for the grammar because that is worse.

Public bus that doesn't line up exactly with school times and a 3 mile drive to catch it, get home our end.

She wouldn't get home until after 5.30pm

OK private school friends arrive at 6.30, but they have HW time, sports clubs and tea. DD would just have been waiting and traveling.

An hour to do a 15 min trip.

Council far too tight to pay for enough mini buses. We have one coach that takes the scenic route. Spends the first half hour going away from school doing pick ups that ought to have their own bus

Exactly an hour each way by train with changes for all of mine since age 11

I agree that it helps if they make friends with children who live here. At my daughter's school as the school coaches came from so many different directions they put girls in classes with other girls who lived near them which worked very well. Also it helped us a lot heloping the older 3 to pass a driving test at 17. One even passed his driving theory test on his 17th birthday!

I had a half hour bus ride to school and while the journey itself was no problem the social side of things was. I'd urge your DD to consider who her friends are going to be and where they are going to live. Sixth Form is a great time to step up on socaial occasions as everyone is that little bit older and given that bit more freedom. Inviting friends home for lunch or to drop in after college is a really nice way to chill out. If her new friends live near her school then she's not going to be able to drop in and out of their houses so well in the evenings as she will always feel the pressure of getting home - coming home so much later will be a complete faff (bus services start tailing off the later the evening gets) and if she misses any buses it will be a very long day.
This also applies with or without friends - any little delay on the way home (late leaving / missed connection etc etc means getting home later and later - which then impacts on how much time she has in the evenings to be studying. 6pm as a usual get home time is quite late imo when she has a lot of 6th form studying to do.
Then, if the friends are also going to be travelling a similar distance to school there will be very little after school contact without great negotiations. (very quiet life)
If the friends are going to be the ones she made in Senior school then she's going to arriving home at least an hour later than them and so will miss out on the homework hour / after school chat and will only be able to see them at weekends or on a late night.
I know your DD is probably thinking the school is everything but it is quite isolating being so distant from friends every single day.

So just how sociable is your DD, how easily does she make friends and how much effort does she want to put into maintaining these relationships? Just things to consider besides the stunning academic record. If you're going to be unhappy and not so included in social circles for two years is it worth it? If she thinks yes then great.

DS1 less than 30seconds if he dawdles, we live across the road. Putting up with inconsiderate parental parking every day is pay-off for the benefit of living so close.

DS2 5mins drive but I dropof and pick up on way to / from work.

Don't have DCs at school yet, but I went from a 10-15 minute bus journey to get to secondary school, to a 1 hour - 1 hour 10 minute bus journey to and from college and I would get home at about 6pm.

My DS gets a bus at 7:40 for school which starts at 8.45am - there are nearer schools, but he picked this.
At home time, its quicker as they put on an express bus just for our village as there are so many boys and girls attending school in the city. So he is normally home by 4pm if no after school activities

lift not loft

Very rural area. DS gets a loft about 50% of the time. If not:

Leaves home at 7.25am. Walks down dark lane with torch in winter (100m?) to residential roads. Bus comes at 7.35am.

Bus arrives at school at 8.00am. School starts at 8.30am.

We are very lucky. It's a grammar school and the next nearest one would have meant him getting a 7am bus!!!

For many children in rural areas, journeys of over an hour are the norm - even on dedicated school transport

Daughter 1 at age 5 took a coach to Haberdashers and the door to door journey was an hour. It was doable. It was a school coach with nice helpers on it and a good atmosphere. It worked out fine. The last 2 children have been a 3 minute walk literally from prep school which has been much easier of course but you have to do what feels best at the time. Daughter 1 earning over £60k in mid 20s (and all her othr nice good features) may be in part due to that good education from age 5.

11yr old 35 minutes tube and walk, I think that is long enough but he has one of the shortest journeys in his class!

7 minutes by car (sheep/ tractor dependent). Or 30 minutes by school bus, plus a few minutes walk the other end.

My own journey used to take 40 minutes by olden days car (this rarely happened). Or two hours by bus/bus/walk or bus/train/walk.

45 minutes door to door. Walk to the station, three stops on the train, walk up the hill to school.

1 hour 10 mins each way and a public bus which gets her home at 6.45 at night (even though college finishes at 3.45!) and having left at 7 in the morning but it is a specialist college, was extremely competitive entry, and she really wants to go there. The time waiting she can spend in the building studying, so it won't be wasted.

Big committment though.

We set a limit if about an hour travel time each way when choosing at age 11. At 16 I would think up to 90 mins absolute Max door to door would be ok as long as it is the students choice to go there and the route (public transport out walking) is busy and safe-remember 6 pm on a winter night is pretty dark and horrid, add to that an hour or so for rugby training, orchestra or what ever, then it's pretty late.

DD1 - about to go into Y10 - has about 1 hour 15 mins each way. Hour on the bus, 15 mins walking to the stop and from the stop at the other end. DS and DD2 go to schools about 20 mins away by car. When I was a kid, my secondary school was about 15 mins by car, 35 mins walking (if you cut through the park and the woods and walked along the railway line) or maybe 1 hour 15 mins by bus, due to the way the buses were routed.

DS just about to start at 6th form college. It's about 20 minutes away by car but his bus journey will be just over an hour. It is the nearest but also his preferred choice.
It will be a long day, he plans to do some work on the bus .
His secondary school was 10 minutes by car and 20-30 minutes by dedicated school bus.