Maximum travel distance from school to home

DH had a long commute. He hated it.

DD went from a 10 minute walk to primary to having just under an hour's commute on the tube/bus. She was very tired at first but she got used to it. She is out of the house from about 7.45 until nearly 5pm. It's a long day but it has been worth it for her. She loves her school.

Those journeys are horrific. Our DD goes to a grammar which luckily is a three minute car journey, or 12-min walk. I'm in NI though.

DS travels 40 minutes on the tube. I will add whilst it is a fantastic school, the majority of kids live local and he doesn’t have any friends that live near us. On week ends and holidays he hangs out with local kids from primary and his local clubs. The lack of local friends is a big downside during the school holidays.

We’ve done 11 years of an hour each way. DH works in the same town so not a big deal. Days were 6:55am to 7pm so pretty long. All homework done at school though.

My DD is about to start secondary, it's a private coach as well. 15 mins walk to the bus stop then I think it's about a 45 min journey due to picking up in villages on the way.
We are in a small town but a fair number of pupils go to village secondaries partly because we are a grammar town so if you want small and mixed ability you don't go to the grammars or the large town comprehensive (which is more like a secondary modern).

It depends on the child, I guess. If yours is reluctant to have a long journey in order to go to a better school than is available nearer, it may not work out well. Otoh if they want to go to a better school than is available nearby then it should be fine. My DD wanted to go to the GS >20 miles away so she got up to be out by 7:30 with no complaints and enjoyed the ‘social club’ of the bus.

Depends on complexity. DD did a term of 1hr tube travel. It wouldn't have been a problem if it was one line for example. The trouble was there was always issues on the district line and that caused a lot of stress. Lots of kids have an hour long journey, and more. It's not uncommon for rural kids to travel over an hour on the school bus. They get used to it and your child is unlikely to be the only one with that journey in a grammar school. They learn to get a lot done in the journey, and tend to miss the worst of the rush hour as they have to be in school at 8:30 or so, whereas most people have to be at work for 9. There's a 30mins period of relative calm before the chaos of commuters in most cities.

DD’s commute (whether I drove her or she got the bus) was around 45 mins, accounting for city centre rush hour traffic and that was more than enough. There were multiple kids in her year who lived up to a 90min commute away - one girl had to get a train and two buses! The parents justified it since it’s a competitive school with an excellent reputation but personally I think that’s far too much for a child. The kids all seemed to manage alright and got used to it but I imagine it was awfully tiring!

If there’s a coach service, I guess others will be doing the same journey.

Also, a hour hour journey isn’t unusual for secondary school, especially in a semi-rural location. My ds’s school was only a few miles away, and it took him an hour - walk to bus stop, bus to town, second bus out and walk to school. Also a grammar school (and not unusual).

90 minutes each way.

I don't see why it should have any mental health implications at all.

DD's train in the morning is literally hundreds of kids going to different schools. They all seem perfectly happy.

They end up with train buddies - otherwise audio books, Netflix App.

Not a single child in our village has less than a 45 minute journey each way... as that is the closest school. Lots of parents opt for much longer to avoid it.

Its very normal for children to have a longer journey to secondary school than primary school, and longer again at Sixth Form. Even just for the normal, local Comprehensive school. (The catchment for ours is 7 miles in one direction for example!)

In what sense?

15 miles drive.

When I was at school we lived 3 miles away but the bus took nearly an hour.

My children's school was less than a ten minute drive round the back way but took them over an hour (walk to bus stop wait for bus get stuck in traffic jam then walk to school)

2 of my children go to a good grammar school. Some children come form ridiculous distances IMO. I feel very sorry for those children. Mine are tired enough without making life harder. They have the rest of their lives to commute. Unless your local school is awful don’t give them a horrible commute.

Are you realistically going to get a place at the school? Grammars round here are over subscribed and places are offered by distance radiating out from the school. If you lived that far away you wouldn't be offered a place regardless of your 11± score.

Time taken to get to school (in actual rush hour) is more relevant than distance.

Remember that you are not comparing School A versus School B, but School A versus School B with an extra 2 hours (or whatever) a day because you don't have the long commute.

Is "the best grammar school" really worth that? How much better is "best"?

My ds travels 20 rural miles to school. I drop him at the school bus at 7.45, and collect him from the bus stop at 5.30 or he walks the four miles home.

He's done that since he was 11 without issue.

This is well worth considering.

One of the reasons we went for such a long commute was that our nearest decent local option was an hour by school coach. It meant leaving home the same time as it arrived 30 minutes before classes began, and there was no late option if you wanted to do after school clubs, school plays etc.

Train is much more flexible, and if they already have a season ticket then no problems meeting up at weekends.