Is sending children to two different schools mad?

[eshermum101]

Hi - I've got 3 Children (DS1 - 7; DS2 - 3; DD1 - 1). I'm interested in finding out the experiences of people who have sent their girls to an all girls school and the boys to an all boys school......especially from a logistical point of view. I have 2 schools in mind but they are a good 15 - 30 minute drive away from each other and no doubt have conflicting holidays and events etc. On paper I think "it'll be ok as other people must do it" but perhaps I need a reality check? (as i could always go co-ed)......am I mad? There are 4 schools years between my boys and 2 school years between DS2 and DD1.

I have 3 dcs in three different schools.

I can walk dd to school and ds1 can walk to school independently but lots of parents at their schools take their dcs to separate schools -boys and girls.

It isn't unusual and it is usually temporary. Once at secondary most children should hopefully be able to get to school on their own. Or at least most of the way after being dropped at train station or bus stop.

It is common here.,

Also schools are familiar with this and usually have breakfast clubs and late rooms to facilitate dropping siblings at their schools. And dds school and dss school seem to at least try to liase re holidays. They are mostly off at the same time - normally longer than state schools.

I am planning to do this. Ds and dd are a year apart. Ds is quite accademically gifted, loud, funny and definitely a "personality". Dd is quiet, middle of the road for everything and very much in ds's shadow. I do not think she benefits at school at all from being his sister and from him always having done what she is doing first. As a result we are looking at sending her to an all girls school.

I have 3 girls in 3 different places.

DD1 is in Y7, DD2 in Y2 (different school about 20 minutes away) and DD3 in preschool/nursery (different place again but only a mile from DD2s school).

DD1 is in private prep so has different holidays too.

I manage but it takes a lot of organising, and I can't wait until DD3 starts school in September!

I have DS in Y6 at a boys prep and about 25 mins away I have DD Y3 at the local girls prep.

I collect DD at 3.15 and we usually get home at 4.45 having collected DS on route (via a big circle).

It isn't perfect, but lots of us locally do it and its workable, and I am so happy with their school choices I wouldn't change it.

I think that you will probably find that if the schools are single-sex then they are set up to cope with the logistics. It isn't in their best interests to stop families with both genders attending, and you may very well end up with some school run buddies. Equally the schools will co-ordinate Christmas fairs/sports days etc. Not to say that there will never be a clash, but usually the schools try to accommodate it.

Currently I have my 2 at different co-ed schools (previously they were in singlesex), and that can be more problematic because I am probably the only parent at each who is in that situation. Whereas in the singlesex school over a quarter of the parents had girls elsewhere. That said, as both of mine are now in prep rather than preprep, there are usually a range of afterschool activities between the 2 of them that allows me to co-ordinate pick-up times.

I do try to balance things so that my youngest isn't in the car an unnecessarily lengthy amount of time. I did have a week where he did about 6 hours in the car just in order to pick up and drop off his brother at various activities!

Assuming you sent them to a primary and then a secondary you'd only have 1 year with all three together anyway.
We're in the same situation with 2 girls followed by a boy with 3 school year gaps between both. Only here we have infant and junior, and the local secondary is proposing a split site with yrs 7-9 3 miles away from yrs 10+. So we would only have children in the same school for when 2 are at the junior, one top year, one bottom year, and anyway we'll have two years of three separate schools which isn't our choice.

In September I will have 4 in 3 different schools - ahhhhhh

It's a bit of a headache to be honest. While you get into a routine with the basic getting there and back (and indeed they manage themselves for this when they are older) it's all the extra things that clash that wouldn't have been scheduled on the same day at the same school that cause the problems imo. Last Thursday for instance we had to choose whether to go to see ds perform at a music concert or dd in a school play and it's the same with parents evenings, sports fixtures, everything!

Our two are in different schools and while the holidays mostly match there are often other clashes - sports days, concerts, fairs etc, so in an ideal world I'd prefer to have them in the same school but their needs are very different so this is a sacrifice we're making.

I have had the dc in different schools from when the eldest was 8. Logistically it was a nightmare but the right thing to do. We are in a location not served by the school bus and public transport (one bus) is unreliable. It was only really difficult until ds was 11 though at which point he started coming home on the public bus. I still drive him in the mornings - it takes 10 minutes whereas there can be a 30 minute wait for the unreliable bus - and sometimes this gives us a chance for a chat because it's quality uninterrupted time. Both children are now over 11 and relatively independent.