55 minute bus ride to secondary school

[PurpleStripedCat]

Is this too much? Due to separate from DH and I will probably end up moving areas around 6 miles away from DS (13) comp. One area is decent with a bus stop along the road which stops right outside his comp. Ex and I will be doing 50-50 shared so only half the time DS will have to do this. I don’t have much choice unfortunately about where I will end up as I’m on the HA/Council House list. I’m coming up as top ten for the area that would be a 55 minute bus ride. Other areas would be a 30 minute ride.

Unfortunately the 55 minute bus ride stops at loads of places which is why it takes ages!

I could also take that area off my list but it is the one I’m coming up top for.

I did it for 7 years when I was at school.

Too far, my son’s secondary is an 8 min walk which I’m happy with. I had to travel on 2 buses to get to secondary school and I hated it

I understand your reluctance tbh. Of course he'll be fine but as a parent, it tugs at the heart strings. It's a departure. Big changes for you all and this is a part of it.

I think it's fine if he's getting home at 4.20, there is plenty of evening left for homework and downtime.

My bus ride was an hour and 10 minutes on a good day because I lived rurally and the school bus had to go around all the villages. I hated it.

It's too far. Add in the 20 minute wait for the bus when he finishes in school and none of his friends also on the bus. So he would be getting home 1 hour 15mins after school finishes.
With you not driving, means he can't he collected or dropped off if he is delayed.

It would be fine so long as the bus is reliable. It's a long wait if it's cancelled as buses so often are, these days.

I lost my bus pass once and had to walk all the way home, it took ages. I really wouldnt want my child in a school that far away especially if you don’t drive..

My dc has a 45 minute bus ride & loves it. They listen to music or watch YouTube, chat to friends - usually via WhatsApp etc. they love it. We live very rural so it was either that or dh took her on his way to work- they chose bus! Both dh & I has same bus journeys when we went to school. I’m a secondary teacher & it’s quite common.

My son did it from a rural village to a school in oxford about 1 hour 20mins was a public bus but he had friends on there, it was fine.
we moved to a big town and the school was a 3 min walk he’s a adult now and reminisces about the bus journeys

It’s not the length of time per se but that’s a ridiculous length of time to travel 6 miles! Would a taxi be quicker at least one way?

Think the bus bit is fine (my daughter commutes over an hour door to door and enjoys it) - worth checking it actually comes as an hour wait definitely isn’t ok.

Loads of dc in Cities do too - fewer miles maybe, but sat in traffic jams.

Wow! Thats an early home time. I don’t see the issue. DD1 in yr7 got two buses to and from school taking 1.5 hours each way. In poor weather it’d take 2hrs so arrive home 630pm. She left at 645am as school started 8.25 not ideal but no choice at the time. She was fine.

My kids (all the kids in our town) have a 40 minute bus ride every day. It's normal and they're with mates, sometimes it's their favourite part of the day!

From age 13 due to a house move I had to (for the first time in my life) access public transport with no help from my parents, to get to school daily.

I left home at 7.30am for the first bus, then had to switch over on a high street and get another bus to get me to school for 9am.
Depending on which bus the second one was, I would sometimes get dropped outside the school or sometimes the village nearby, about a 15 mins walk to school.

Same but reversed coming home.
I arrived home about 4,45 every day.
This was before phones and when a bus didn't turn up you didn't know why, had no one to call and had to figure out what to do.

Nowadays with a phone I'm sure your ds would be fine! If he's unsure then maybe do the route with him over a weekend but with maps on phones I'm sure he'd be ok.

I was told to just deal with it and work it out or ask the bus driver to tell me when I was first doing my route 😒
How does he feel about it?

My bus to school took about this long, maybe slightly less. It went all around the town and we lived slightly outside, so it took ages with traffic. Loads of kids did it, it was very normal. I don’t think getting home at 4.20pm is late for a secondary school child personally.

Or his independence....

My commute very indirect and took longer. I hated it.

Given that he'd be on his own and if he missed the bus he'd have an hour wait for the next one, I think that the commute would become really tedious and staying at Dad's house would quickly become his preferred option.

Would a bike be quicker?

I used to catch the 07:09, the journey was 12 miles as the crow flies but the bus took a most circuitous route weaving between villages on the way so the journey time was just over 1 hour. The bus station was 30 mins walk from the school. I did this both ways. Not just me, around 20 other kids from my village went to the same school. Of course, this was back in the 70's when a lot of kids made some pretty extraordinary journeys to get to school.

We're in London and it's not uncommon to have a journey that takes that long - buses move slowly here and there are some very sought-after schools that have amazing results, so parents think it's worth it. We opted for a 45 min journey max for our dd as she's involved in a lot of extracurriculars which make the day long enough as it is. But she takes a 50-60 min bus ride for one extracurricular and that's fine, she quite enjoys chiling out for the journey.

I am a foster carer mainly looking after teenagers. Rather than moving schools when they come into care, social services expect the child to do journey's of 90 minutes or more, so three hours travelling a day. It's tiring but most of the teenagers are happy to do it once they get into a routine.

My secondary school ride was an hour each way. I LOVED my bus ride. You make friends completely out of your normal school zone.

It’s not great is it but seems like it’s a bit out of your control as you need housing. DH had an hour long train journey to school each way, he didn’t like it.

Perhaps not ideal, but not the end of the world either. There can be issues such as after-school clubs, tiredness, school friends living miles away or difficult to get to. What does your son think?
I went to a secondary school in London via a school bus, I caught the bus at 7.16am (still remember the times....) and got home about 4.50pm, or 90 minutes later if I caught the late bus having done after school stuff. My sisters did the same.