How long is your DC's school commute?

Do check the reliability of the train route. Some experience frequent strikes, cancellations, and constant delays, while others have long intervals if you miss one train, can be very frustrating experience.

90 minutes each way.

We live rurally and nearest school was just under an hour, nearest good school was 75... and a faff. So made sense to do the 90 minutes for the school that was perfect for DD.

Commute is 2 trains with a platform change in between and very short walks at each end. Guaranteed a seat on both trains both ways.

Main train has good wifi, tables and chargers, so DD does all her homework - or watches Netflix on her iPad. Trains are much easier to work on that buses or tubes.

A longer commute with fewer changes is less tiring that a shorter commute with stressful changes.

In terms of friendships, if the school is non-catchment (lottery, super-selective etc) then it's fine as your child is not the odd one out. DD has a season ticket so just goes into London to meet up with school friends in the holidays and at weekends. Very few live within walking distance of school.

London is great as lots of options for travel so staying late no issue, also if you miss one train there will be another. Local schools had one dedicated bus and if you missed that it was very hard to get to or from the school.

DD has commuted since Y1... now in Y10 and has no issues with it.

As a child I had a 1 hr commute to school on the tube, changing 3 times. The timing wasn’t as bad as the route - I vividly remember the feeling of being squashed on the platform every day, waiting for two or three trains to pass before I could squeeze on. I hated it and as an adult have chosen to never have a job that required that kind of commute!

if you’re already central then dc might be commuting in the other direction though, which could be much better!

The CLSG boasts a heart location in the City of London area, making it easily accessible via public transportation from all corners of London. Most girls have a convenient door-to-door commute of 30 to 50 minutes, with only a few exceptions traveling over 60 minutes.

We live in SW London suburbs, DD has a 25 minute walk to high school. DS journey was an hour door to door - walk to bus stop then either one bus and a longer walk or two buses and a shorter walk.

Longer commutes across London for certain schools can be common. I can remember being at an event at City of London Girls School (based in the Barbican) where they had a map of where girls travelled in from - to encourage them to find people to travel in with - and there were girls travelling in from all over London.

10 minute walk.

7-9 min drive

90 mins each way is the absolute maximum.

Just under a 5 minute walk, if we walk to the end of the road we can see the playing fields.
Its Private though, the State school was about 15 minutes walk.
Lots of DS's friends have lomg commutes as there aren't may Private schools in the area and they are always jealous that hes so close. I love it, not only is it so easy for him but its not unusual for a friend or 2 to walk home with him and get picked up from here, it was the same when DD was there too

Why are so many adults preferring to work from home rather than commute to the office? Same reasons.

Primary daughter scoots in, 10 minutes.
Secondary son gets a lift with me, 25 minutes.

Not sure what the definition " very academic" mean. If the child didn't take 11+ or even SATs it is all in the air

Anyway my son had on SATs greater depth on 3 subjects ( academic? ) and will be commuting 40 min, two buses

35 minute walk, 20 minute bus / car because the traffic is awful. 5 minute drive out of school time.

10 min walk we are in a big city

About 20 miles for us. Just under half an hour in the car but more like 45 mins on the school bus as it stops a couple more times after our stop and doesn't take the most direct route. That means leaving home at 7.50 and getting home about 16.20 most days which I think is fine. Quite a lot of pupils travel for over an hour to our school which I think makes it rather a long day for the youngest ones, when you consider some year 7s are only just turned 11, but it's a rural area so no choice for some of the children really. They all seem to get used to it anyway

An 8 minute walk (2 teens) to a school in South East London zone 2 that is highly thought of and 'the one' to get into but it's rubbish! Bit at least it's close

We leave at 7.30 am, I drop ds at school bus stop at 7.45am, he gets to school at 8.30, so an hour. Same in the evening.

For my DD, she loves to do extra curricular stuff and would have liked to play another instrument, but the 2+ hours of commuting means she just doesn't have time. But I still think that getting the right school for her matters more.

@Schoolhelp23 Personally I won't consider it a good opportunity that worth this amount of commute. Obviously some other parents weigh it differently. It is just not the stage to think about this until it becomes an option itself.

OP you mentioned live near Waterloo on the other thread. I think most of the students in HBS travel from far, so 1 hour or more one way is the normal average. Commute from Waterloo took similar time 60mons?. St Michael is probably further away.

Most of the parents sign up for both schools focus get in first at this stage rather than think of the commute.

10-15 minute walk. It’s not flat, so how fast they walk up and down the hills depends on their energy levels. The hills are steep!

For DS it’s a 25 min train journey and we live about 15 min walk from the station. The school is right next to the station, thankfully.
It’s only difficult when the train is cancelled (a couple of times a term) or on strike. The school have issued him a get out of jail free card for when the trains run late.
The commute doesn’t negatively affect him as far as I can tell

Our local secondary is about a 45 min walk but we're in a part of town where a bus is provided. DS is moving to a private school though and will get their school bus - about 45 mins door to door.

7 min walk for my GC ….have timed it