School run with two children in London

[Intubia]

Hi All,
i wonder if I could use community wisdom re: options how to commute to school/back with two children.

my older one is now 3 and we’re driving to/from on most days (15-20min up to 30 door to door at most in am), around 15-20 in pm. We do it 3 times a week. We also have an option to take the bus (4 stops) and then tube (3 stops) which is also around 30-35 min. The bus bit is usually a walk 15 min adult pace, I thought of using scooter but it’s up and wonhill and rather bad pavement, significant traffic etc.

next year my older one will go to reception so will need this 5/week and I’m planning to put my then 2 y/o into nursery on the same place. Whilst driving will probably remain preferred mode of transportation, there will be days when I will need to head straight to work after drop off, and I’m unable to leave the car in the area as it’s either resident permit or up to 4 hrs paid parking.

cycling probably not an option as route is dangeorous+2 children. I was thinking sth like Thule chariot cross 2 but then tube station does require 1 flight of stairs. Bus connection extends journey to 40 min and that’s w/o traffic.

any other parental hacks?

I would do pretty much anything to avoid taking two kids on the tube between 7:30-09:00 am - people literally fall out of the train when the door opens near us (zone 2 south London).

Could you use a cargo e-bike and leave it at the school? Or does the school have buses?

When DS was at my work nursery, which did mean going on the subway at rush hour (Toronto, far less crowded than the London tube), we took him in the sling. He was fine in that until age 3. Your older child could walk.

During rush hour, yes. Back in the 90s, DM used to drive me to secondary school from our village to the next town over. About 3-4 miles. Used to take more than an hour, in absolutely stationary traffic. Can be done in under 10 mins in the middle of the day.

Outer London. Six minute drive on a good day. 95 minutes by public transport.

Or the weekend hospital visit - 45 minutes door to door London bound, any greater a gap between the train and the platform would require a parachute, an even larger gap to get onto the connecting service and a jump down at the destination, but to do an estimated identically timed but not treacherously mountainous trip back on an alternative route took us three hours.

Maybe get their DF to sort it? Where do they work in relation to the school?

It's snobbery, the local school can't be that bad. The op just doesn't want to use them for her children.

I would walk to the tube station. 15min walk shouldn't be too much of a problem. That's a fairly normal distance for lots of children to walk to school or nursery.

Thank those of you who replied with some helpful suggestions. It will boil down to us trying them and choosing the one that fits best (which I suspect may change as they grow).

Electric cargo bike sounds like the best option in this case.

Obviously OP is not saying where she lives because lots of people will jump on the chance to critique her choice of location, school, anything not directly in answer if the question and simply telling her to change schools/be less snobby/ oh local school is better.

Derailing threads is some people's favourite hobbies.

Spot on, and thank you.

A local school is better at infants. You can argue the toss at prep, at secondary depends on the school and child. But EYFS and KS1 kids do better locally.

How can you possibly state that so definitively? It’s hugely dependent on a large number of factors, specific to both school and child.

I moved.

I tried tube/bus with buggy and sling; walking; scooting; driving without parking; every permutation possible. I didn’t even work. It was soul destroying. The simple matter of getting from A to B became a huge ordeal in the rain and cold, during toilet training, during sickness (theirs or mine), strikes, route changes, roadworks. Just awful, miserable days. And I didn’t even have to get to work in time.

It was actually easier to move. We sold and bought again.

You’re asking if there is a “hack” to doing it all, easily. No. There isn’t. What you’ve described will suck at some point or another. You don’t want to move, you don’t want a closer school: well this is your reality. Short of employing another pair of hands, there’s not much to say.

Most people around here use a tern bike with two kids and leave them parked at the school. If you park them outside - they do often get stolen. Yes, people do drive in - especially noticeable when private schools break up for the holidays earlier than the state ones, but I wouldnt have thought their parents then go to the office.

Because little children get tired. It’s more difficult to take them long distances.

As long as the school they go to is ok and their parents practice their phonics and are involved in their education it makes little difference to their outcomes. Dragging then 30 minutes on buses and tubes to the pre-prep is generally no better than walking them up the road and considerably more stressful.

I would swallow the cost for the first 3 years to park near the school on your office days. As pp says perhaps look for a private parking space. Budget it and start cutting back now. After that, both children will hopefully have more stamina to do a public transport commute.

Driving them is perfectly straightforward and comfortable. Ask me how I know.

Your neighbour got their child into an outstanding London primary that's so far away they have to drive?

Something stinks there.

I don’t think so. Don’t know that them particularly well but from what I gather they used to live closer, went to the affiliated church, then moved once the eldest had started. After the move they considered local privates but decided to stick with the existing school and get an uber every day. The younger siblings got in on sibling link
I’m guessing. They seem like nice people and they’ve said they’re doing private secondary so I doubt it’s a scam.

I've heard of primary schools cracking down on that situation (getting first child in, then moving far away) by introducing a distance limit to the sibling places, so siblings don't automatically get in.

Yep, ours has done this. If you move more than 1 mile from the school after getting the first child in you lose sibling priority.

In these circumstances, my preferred option would be to change schools. I know you don't want to, but this school run is going to really get you down.

but if you're determined to stick with it, then the two things to try are

a) researching other public transport - perhaps going out a few stops to change to a different bus/train/tube route that will take you to the school. Then you use a Boris or other hire bike to get you from school to work.

b) going much earlier in the morning than you need to (so public transport is do-able) and finding a nice cafe and having breakfast with the DC there. It'll probably cost less than paying for parking

Yes I knew a few families who moved and rented, renting out their own home to get the first child in and then siblings follow, with the family moving back. Camden in particular clamped down hard on this.

People even buy small flats in the council estate near our highly-competitive secondary, while renting out their actual house. Or fake-split up and move mum and the children to the council flat on paper only (letters go to the council flat, GP changed, etc). Then they miraculously reconcile in Y7.

The lengths some parents will go to is honestly mental.

Except OP says it isn’t for her! Hence the thread.

The side conversation that you have contributed to @Saschka is not about OP though, it’s about a blanket statement that local schools are better for children up to the end of EYFS.

Also, maybe read the OP again. She says that driving them is no problem except on days that she has to go straight into the office.

Whilst driving will probably remain preferred mode of transportation, there will be days when I will need to head straight to work after drop off, and I’m unable to leave the car in the area as it’s either resident permit or up to 4 hrs paid parking.

At our prep, a very brilliant and in demand one people travelled from quite far. One child travelled in for almost an hour. Not uncommon in London.
On the days you need to go straight into the office, can you use an Uber on those days?