Secondary choice - concerned about long-ish commute and need advice.

You have very valid concerns. We are 3 weeks in to senior school life - commute has gone from a walking 5 mins to 40 mins on foot/tube, longer days (12 hours due to extra curricular stuff on top from school) and then fitting in homework.

What's been compromised so far is the music practice that used to be mornings (only 25 mins piano but it helped), now eaten up by the earlier commute and daily violin...lucky if it comes out at weekend. And she accepted a music scholarship so this is clearly not acceptable. The rest of the week has swimming, ballet, sports training and matches and then...the ridiculous number of clubs she seems to have signed herself up to, for good measure.

However, DD seems to be taking it all in her stride - and thinks she can still fulfil all she does to a reasonable standard.

This is truly not a boast, as I am embarrassed to say her doing homework last 2 nights to 10.30pm had my head hanging in shame. But, I am hoping for a natural fall out by her to cull what ever needs to give, as she is hugely driven, hates submitting poor homework and is desperately trying to overcome her scattiness. Or things will balance out as she learns to multi task. She's already doing some of the work at school to make more time elsewhere.

On the positive, what I do see, even though it's physically less of her, is such a positive change. In 3 weeks she has turned into a young girl that loves all things school related, really enjoying the new friendship groups and happily finds a familiar face on the trains across all ages (and schools) to chat away with. It's brought about a new confidence that she was ready for.

I do have days of envy for the local guys that didn't move school, but on balance, unless I hear homework is adversely effected or she starts getting sick, this is her. All children are different...