2 mile walk to secondary school too far?

[Somewhereonlywego]

I'm not sure how long it would take, 40, 45 mins?

I could give lifts where possible on WFH days, but that wouldn't be every day.

There's a bus, but only one an hour and not sure how reliable it would be. But could be an option for super rainy days?

My daughter walks 2 miles to school currently and her secondary will be a similar distance. I wouldn’t say it was an issue. The walk is a safe walking route though. Is the route safe walking route?

My DC all walk 1.8 miles each way every day, it is our catchment school and it has never occurred to me that it might be too far. Some of their friends walk further. They all meet up with groups of friends on the way and it takes much longer than it would if they just actually walked directly but that's all part of their experience. I agree with pp it's fresh air and exercise built into their day, as well as time to be with friends - would your DC have friends to meet up with on the way?

I’d like to thank you for making me laugh out loud today, really out, even. Just what I needed on this gloomy day!

I do think some people are missing the point. Of course it’s not too far to walk for a healthy teenager. But I wouldn’t want to do that every day. And I definitely wouldn’t want to do it if I was going somewhere I didn’t want to go-and kids sometimes don’t want to go to school. And I wouldn’t want to do it after a rugby match. And what if I wanted to bring a friend home after school? There are so many variables! It’s one of those things that’s absolutely fine until it isn’t.

Quite. Of course it’s not too far in the principle. But walking 40 mins 2 x a day in winter with an heavy bag, including in driving, freezing rain?

You’d soon find that “water resistant” does not mean waterproof.

Even with a fully waterproof, 700 fill goose down coat, fully waterproof boots (which realistically will set you back around £600) - that’s still a grim prospect.

I wasn’t a yomper, I had a bus pass and had to get on a coach from the 50s (this was the 90s) that was some variety of classic each morning. They were exempt from MoT and it showed as they were rust buckets that would dump us out when they broke down and inspect us to walk the remaining several miles with hockey sticks, art folders, giant bags and no way of contacting home. I’d have loved to have been a yomper instead of trying to walk up the most massive hill in my town fully laden and wearing my dolcis heels and rolled up skirt.

Ours is just under two miles and my children walk or cycle. It takes about 35/40 minutes to walk there and about three hours to walk home via the newsagent, park and three different friends houses. At least they're getting exercise! I do drop them off if it's absolutely tipping down.

My 17yo walks 2 miles from the school bus stop to where I pick him up, in just over half an hour. I thought he'd moan but actually he likes it. After being cooped up all day he likes the exercise.

What's the option if it's the nearest school? School bus passes come into play after 3 miles

Sounds like my route home from school lol

But you’re kind of proving the point some of us are making 😂 it wasn’t fun was it? And this is even further.

I don’t think it’s too far for a secondary school age child to walk however I do think it might be inconvenient especially if carrying lots of sports bags or books etc and also potentially a pain in bad weather. I was glad my kids only ever had a 10 min walk to secondary however my daughter did have 30 min walk for college but she always rather walked than bus (even though bus was door to door.)

London has loads of streetlights. Never seen it pitch black there

Its more what they carry. Mine could easily do this with light bags but the amount of gear they have to carry is crazy. We use bikes with panniers

My walk to school was nearly 2 miles, and all uphill on the way home. It was sometimes knackering after a long day with a cookery basket and a PE kit and all my friends lived in the opposite direction, but it was fine.

I don’t know about other schools, but the majority of kids these days seem to not have any textbooks and leave the majority of exercise books at school. PE kit goes in once a week and then stays in the locker. Only carrying pencil case and lunch mostly.

I can guarantee, even if there are buses and trains, many kids are walking that far in total, and with all their kit. DD's had to walk to the train from.home, change to another train, and then walk to school the other end. Quite often if the second train was cancelled they would walk across town to catch the other train. This particular school, and the two next to it, with hundreds of kids all doing the same, with huge amounts of sports and music kit. Some even chose not to catch the second train to save money, or spend the saving on food and drinks in town!

Not at all. Perfectly doable. That’s the distance I walked to school and, then from school every day. No lifts and didn’t ever consider getting a bus.

My 12 year old walks about 30 mins each way. She is fine. There is a big gang of kids that do it.

However - We do have a decent bus service and if she is coming back later / in rain - she has options.

But the kids kind of like it. They get to chat shite for an entire hour without adults around!

Assuming there’s a safe walking route, 2 miles wouldn’t be too far as a general rule.

It might be sensible to have back up plans in place for days when the weather’s terrible / your DC has a lot of bulky things to carry, but on the whole I wouldn’t say it’s too far to walk.

For what it’s worth, my secondary school age DC have lighter bags than I had at that stage, because a lot of their homework etc is set online, so they’re having to carry less books around.

Op does have a choice which is what this thread is about but I’ll answer your question.

i would hope that schools that have large numbers of children walking up to 3 miles a day would have lockers to store things, and would allow dc to wear PE kits all day (if they want) and have as many online textbooks as possible - if the kid has a laptop or iPad - and are relaxed about uniform in summer/ winter not forcing children into blazers in July heatwaves and allowing them trainers or boots with grip in winter.

dd1 probably walks about a mile to her current school and about 1 1/2 to
her previous and I was really angry that she got told off one year because I felt her trainers were more suitable to do a walk on an icy minor residential road than her school shoes.

Assuming a safe walking route it should be ok.

DfE guidance that determines school transport has walking distance from age 8 or above as up to 3 miles

No. I did it and walking was actually preferable to hanging about waiting for the bus.

Mine do this - there is a bus alternative but the nearly always choose to walk to save the bus fare. It’s fine.

It's fine. I'm nearly 60 and 2 miles takes me 30 minutes.