To send child to a secondary one hour away?

[hibbledibble]

I'm thinking hard about secondary options currently. One option is about an hour away, and an amazing school. It would however involved a train ride and then a bus.

Other options are a bus ride away, and also good, but don't have the same amazing facilities or stellar results.

I'm torn regarding which school to pick as first choice.

Is an hour too much to travel?

@julieca

I did an hours journey to school all through secondary. I still socialised and did evening activities. When you are young and full of energy its not such a big deal.

But lots of kids won't be able to socialise with their mates or do activities after school as there's only one bus and they have to be on it.

It's the same going to school - if the buses run hourly and the 8am bus gets you there five minutes late, you have to get the 7am bus and hang about for an hour on your own when you could be sleeping

My school was a 25 minute journey and that was bad enough! I hated getting home late and having to leave home stupidly early just to get to school.

@icedcoffees, of course, it depends on public transport and that should be looked at in decision making. Buses for me were every half hour. I used to read on the bus. I got to school about 15 minutes before class, just enough time for a bit of socialising before classes.
Obviously, if there is one bus only, that is no good. But the question was specifically about an hours journey.

A 25-minute journey! Even if I had gone to my nearest school I would have had a 15-minute walk. 25 minutes is nothing.

I wouldn't. It cuts down on time to do homework.

[quote julieca]@icedcoffees, of course, it depends on public transport and that should be looked at in decision making. Buses for me were every half hour. I used to read on the bus. I got to school about 15 minutes before class, just enough time for a bit of socialising before classes.
Obviously, if there is one bus only, that is no good. But the question was specifically about an hours journey.[/quote]
I did a 25 minute journey and honestly, that was bad enough! It didn't help that I had to catch the school bus, none of my friends were on there as their parents drove them and collected them - I also had to hang around after school for two hours as the only school bus was at 5.30, whereas my friends were all collected at 3.20.

I really resented my parents for sending me there - they paid a fortune (private school) and it really wasn't worth it.

@icedcoffees having to hang around school for 2 hours for the bus is pretty awful.

Do the journey a few times over the Christmas holidays to see what’s it like. Make sure you do it at the same time in the morning.

I think it really depends on the DC - I used to do a 1h walk home from secondary school and then go out after to ballet or gymnastics most evenings and never felt tired.

It was a wide catchment area (only Catholic school in the city) so our parents would take it in turns hosting/ferrying us about or we used to get the bus into town on Saturdays to wander round Claire's Accessories.

@mdh2020

Both my children did bus and then a tube journey. My DD had a walk at the other end. Neither minded because they were receiving a first class education and travelled with each other in the morning and friends on the way home.

Really?

Depends on the transport. If this is London, yes, go for it. Transport is plentiful, frequent and cheap/free for kids. If your local transport is significantly less good I would think again.

DD has roughly an hour's journey to school involving a bus and train but we are in London so it's all quite easy and she travels with friends.

I'd say it's too far, sorry. DS has just finished his first term in year 7. His school is a 20-minute walk and he and his friends are absolutely knackered. He's been falling asleep early, grumpy, missing clubs because he's just too tired etc.

It’s not so much the hour as the two methods of public transport that would be the deal breaker for me. A bus and a train, twice a day, every day, there’s just too much potential for delays and cancellations which could make it much longer than a hour and would be really stressful. Both in the morning when they’re worried about being late for school and the evening when they just want to get home.

I honestly think it’s too far. You got to imagine what it’s be like 👍 n the middle of January when it’s dark, freezing cold and pissing rain. It’s just miserable and tiring. Plus after school activities/clubs would be difficult as would seeing friends. When I went into 6 form we moved house and I had to get 2 public buses plus various bits of walking to get to school and it took me at least an hour and it was bloody horrible. I was older and only has to do it for 2 years. I’d have absolutely hated it as an 11 year old. This is a very different journey to those at an independent school who get on a coach near their home then dropped off directly at school.

No idea where the emoji came from, sorry.

I went to a school that was 35 minutes away. To the posters that are saying that a 25 minutes is already tiring their children out- are either not used to walking considerable distances or are just tired from the mental load when at secondary. Honestly, 25 minutes is nothing

10 hours a week commuting to/from school! I could have thought of better things to do as a child. What a waste of time and I guess they will have the same travel to meet up with their classmates to socialise.
I travelled 1hr 4days a week to college at 16 I wouldn't want to have done it at a younger age.

I wouldn't have liked doing this journey at secondary and also would have felt I'd missed out by not living anywhere near friends.

Do you only have one dc or do you have more at other schools? Bit extreme, but would you be able to move closer or just somewhere with a direct train link to the school?

Otherwise, I'd lean towards one of the more local ones.

I do think 1 hour is long-sorry. It takes me an hour to get to work and I'm shattered- how much more so than a child. 35-40 minutes is pushing it. Either consider moving near the school or look for a closer one. However, I have known some children who are travelling by an hour on train- so it depends.

No way.

@secular39

I went to a school that was 35 minutes away. To the posters that are saying that a 25 minutes is already tiring their children out- are either not used to walking considerable distances or are just tired from the mental load when at secondary. Honestly, 25 minutes is nothing

That was me. I was trying to make the point that starting a new school (and being at school, and being a tween/teen) is really tiring and adding a long, complicated journey to it won't help.

@BlowDryRat

I got you.

@hibbledibble I travelled just over an hour to school, and same back. It took me until Christmas holidays to get used to it, but after that it wasn't a big deal. Lots of student travelled long journeys (especially to the top independent schools-mine wasn't quite the best in the country!), so it wasn't unusual to use public transport with others.

I'm currently in the process of making a choice, and we've selected a school that will take an hour. Of course it depends if we do get that one, but it will be a case of driving dc to and back.

How far do the rest of the kids travel in from? If she's travelling in and from in a similar fashion to the rest of her peers that's v different to them all being 20mins away from the school

I went to a school an hour away and I would not want the same for my children. I had to be out the house by 7.15 every morning and didn't get home till 5pm then there was homework to do. I couldn't partake in after school clubs as I had no way of getting home (last bus left at 4.15). The main issue though was friends, the school was quite rural and so no way of seeing friends outside of school unless being driven by a parent (my best friend lived a 1hr drive away). I was quite lonely tbh. My sibling went to the local school, it had a bad rep but he was happy and did pretty well, May years on he has a core group of friends he still sees, they all have kids now and it's lovely. I'm very jealous, the distance made it impossible for us to socialise independently once we hit 15/16/17 so most friendship groups at our school didn't really continue.

School is more than just academics.

I went to a school 90 minutes away. I’m not sure that it was worth it- the travelling was too much and I was split up from my local friends.

My kids will attend a school 30 minutes away and I think that’s ok.