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?

It is a walk on pavements and a park, and there are several schools very close so it’s literally a couple of thousand children all walking at the same time… most walk as catchments mean we’re on the outskirts of the catchment and loads of kids are closer.

Because we are a nation of overweight lazy gits on the whole. Two miles really isn't very far, but every time this comes up you get 'But what if their school is at the top of Scafell Pike, and they need to carry an anvil for blacksmithing class, and there's a blizzard, and there's an axe murderer on the loose, and the only way to get there is along a motorway, and they've just lost a leg?'. To which the obvious answer is 'Yeah in those circumstances maybe don't walk, but given the OP didn't mention any of that we can assume it's usually going to be OK'.

3 of mine went to a school 2 miles away. The oldest started off getting the bus. Then the one day he missed it and had to walk decided he preferred that and walked. The other 2 always walked. The bus was an option if the weather was really bad, but they weren't averse to wearing coats. They didn't have much other kit, PE days, or violin, and never objected to carrying them. They walked with friends, sometimes detoured to town.

They'd been doing a 1.5 mile walk to their primary school every day so it wasn't much more of an effort.

My poor son had to cycle to and from school last Friday as I was in hospital and his dad was with me. His coat he chose did not stand up to the rain and he was apparently soaked and cold when he arrived home. He survived. He was already a bit poorly with a cold. He came home and had a hot shower and was fine.

we’ve now discussed choosing the right coat for the weather and having gloves with him. He has a decent bag and a decent file wallet that seems to be quite waterproof for his bits of paper.

We can’t take him to school, there is no wraparound care, he just has to crack on.

On paper we are much better off than our parents (cost of living be damned), we could pay for him to get a taxi every day. But we won’t and that would be totally unnecessary. He’s coming to know harm by getting himself to school and it isn’t particularly “character building” or “challenging”, it’s just necessary.

Saxophone.

Why are saxophones funny?

Or live near a bus stop.

The whole massive bag(s) and no lockers for any of your stuff all day is new in secondary schools. Where i live anyway. We didnt have to lug around text books and that kind of thing. My kids do. They have to carry everything they have all day. I could stick some of my stuff in my locker.

I don’t know how typical their school is, but my kids have had to carry much less stuff to school and back than I ever did, because they barely use textbooks (it’s all iPads and interactive whiteboards), they have fewer, longer classes, and far fewer homeworks each day.
They also have rucksacks instead of shoulder bags so much more practical.

Exactly. We’re just a lazy nation overall and it’s so depressing.

Same here. My son had a pretty light backpack with a few workbooks, his lunch, water and pencil case. No text books. PE days they wear their kit

I go past a bus stop used by a loads of secondary school kids every time I go to work and I never seem to see these kids toiling under the burden of enormous bags; it's all normal sized backpacks and maybe the occasional clarinet/violin etc. So I'm not convinced that every schoolkid is taking cricket equipment for their entire class, a double bass, and a hard copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica to school every day as seems to be the norm on MN. Sure it may be that such kids are getting driven to school in articulated lorries so that's why I don't see them at the bus stop, but why say that a 2 mile walk to school is unreasonable in general just because your kids take the world to school every day? It just seems like justification for laziness.

You say there's a bus every hour, why wouldn't he just get the bus? That's what all the kids here do.

My secondary school didn’t have lockers so you had to carry everything - it was absolutely fine.

My dcs school still use textbooks and they get loads of homework, most days i can't lift my dds rucksack, its ridiculous.

Maybe the times don’t fit in with school.

On the standard day my DDs have...
5 A4 exercise books (oe an A4 folder)
2 pencil cases
Lunch and water bottle

Plus sometimes PE kit (trainers, top, shrts/leggings, jumper) (2or 3 das(
Food ingredients for DD2 once a week

Then maybe something like an umbrella.

Get them signed up for Bikeability level 3 if you can (try local cycle clubs or check online with Cycling UK or Cycle Scotland depending on where you are). A decent cycle trainer will ride the route with them, and talk them through good road craft. And they’re a kid, so if they cycle on the pavement for the worst bits (albeit slowly and carefully, giving priority to pedestrians) they’ll not get in trouble for that. If you’re not regular cyclists also ask around because you might be assuming he has to take a busy road because you usually drive that way, but there might be alternative cycle routes that you don’t even know about. It’ll save loads of time. But I don’t think a 2mile walk is too far at all.

Bus might be absolutely fine! I guess I'm just assuming the worst, if there's only one an hour what if it's super delayed or doesn't turn up. But I'm not basing that off of any actual information!

Sorry, no offence to saxophones intended. It just seemed that of all the typical heavy things to worry about a child carrying, a saxophone would be quite far down the list.

I really think it depends on what other things they do outside of school / after school, what are the roads like? Are they safe and well lit? If they have no after school activities the a 2 mile walk each way is fine - or they could pedal. But - if they have activities every night after school

I would do the walk with your DC so you can see what it is actually like - how long and nature of walk.

1 mile usually takes around 15 mins to walk.

Be warned that secondary age children walking (for the most part) slower than decrepit snails carrying all their worldly possessions in their shell and after a heavy night on the beer.

Do not calculate how long it’ll take them to walk based on “typical” walking speeds.

We walk 2 miles to primary school (year 6) (4 miles for me as i have to walk home again lol) daughter can’t wait till she starts high school as the high school is only round the corner haha xx

Ok. We didnt. It is something continually raised by parents of new Year 7s, too, so it seems a lot of parents are surprised by it.