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Original poster

How far away from your house is the primary school that your DC attends?

46 replies

TodayToday · 16/01/2008 12:25

Currently my DD is in Reception and the school she attends is a 10 minute walk away. This is great. We are moving later in the year and I may not be able to match up buying a house with using the nearest school. The decent schools in the town are full. There's a small school spaces a few miles out of the town. we don't yet know if we'll live in the town or live on the outskirts or if we should make an effort to live as close to the school as possible.

I'm curious to know how far other people are willing to travel to take their DC to a decent primary school.

OP posts:
MAMAZON · 16/01/2008 12:27

at the mo Ds goes to school whihc is a 15 minute drive away. would take abuot 45 minutes to walk there.

princessosyth · 16/01/2008 12:29

For me distance is a priority, I like to walk to school. I couldn't be doing with the stress of packing children into a car and worrying about parking.

angelstar · 16/01/2008 12:30

My children go to a school 10 mins walk away. I think its 0.7 miles away.

princessmel · 16/01/2008 12:30

About a 2 minute drive or a 15 min walk (kids speed). We walk through a park so its a nice walk too.

ruddynorah · 16/01/2008 12:32

ours is across the road (smile) and happens to be the best school in the town (grin). she is only 20 months old now though, things change.

Hulababy · 16/01/2008 12:34

DD goes to a school about 3-4 miles away. DH takes her by car and I collect her by car - but both DH and I would be passing the school anyway as it is on our way to work. Takes 10 minutes.

Our local catchment school would have been a tough 20+ minute walk up hill. But most days we would have still had to use the car as we'd be going onto work after drop off.

The distance thing has never been an issue for us, esp re play dates, etc. Almost all of the children at DD's school travel to the school. DD still manages a couple of playdates most weeks, parents just collect from home. She does have other nonschool friends too, some walking distance, some not.

SeaShells · 16/01/2008 12:34

DC's current school is right opposite our house, it's handy but not the best school in the area, we tried to get the DC's into the better one which would be about a 20min walk but were unsucessfull.
The last school they attended before we moved was around a 35min walk away, that was the nearest school, loved the walk in the summer, very pleasant, but a real pain in the winter weather. I don't drive so distance is pretty important.

FarcicalAlienQueen · 16/01/2008 12:36

DS1's current school (also where DS2 will go from September) is next door - takes me about 2 minutes to walk (at lesuirely pace) from my front door to school playground, wait for him to be "released" from the classroom and get home

In September his school will be about 2/3 minutes walk away.

LadyMuck · 16/01/2008 12:39

We're a 7-10 minute drive from school, but due to the hills it is about a 40 minute walk. It is less than 2 miles away. Nearest school is a 20 minute walk.

Tbh I think that whatever you do, you just get used to and plan around it. It will be mroe of an issue for us when it comes to secondary schools and the dcs have to make their own way there!

FioFio · 16/01/2008 12:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bobsmum · 16/01/2008 12:41

Ds goes to school 5 miles away, so about 15/20 minutes drive.

He's entitled to the school bus, but at the moment only comes home on it as it would be a very long day otherwise. As it is he doesn't get dropped off by the bus until 4:30pm which is a long day when you're only 5!

TrinityRhinosDhWonHerAnIPOD · 16/01/2008 12:43

3 miles
I've worked out I'll be doing the school run for 14 or 15 years.....

Flum · 16/01/2008 12:45

Our nearest school is 5 min walk. There are better schools that would be 5 or 10 mins drive. Or an excellent private school 15 minute drive.

On the way to the local one though is a river full of ducks, supermarket and playground. It is all too convenient. My dd is off to school in September. I think it is very civilised to get up at a reasonable time, breakfast at 8am and walk to school. Lots of my friends kids go to the private but I can#'t bear the thought of piling dd1 & 2 into car for 15 mins then 15 mins back at either end of the day, too much hassle.

Will spend the 40 mins a day I gain on helping dd with her reading (yeah course I will!) so she will do better than at private anyway

blueshoes · 16/01/2008 12:46

25 minutes pleasant walk, 8 minute drive.

mrspnut · 16/01/2008 12:47

DD1's school is 2.5 miles away and the walk is along a busy road for most of it.

It's in the older quarter and so the streets are very narrow and parking gets manic at times (christmas market is a nightmare).

Thankfully she only has until July here and her secondary school will be closer. (we're moving dependent on which secondary school she gets into)

Her old school was less than a mile away and she walked independently for the whole of Year 5 - but she had more difficulty seeing her friends as they all lived much closer to school than she did. Here there are more classmates nearby because there are fewer choices of school.

Original poster
TodayToday · 16/01/2008 12:48

Thank you. How far a distance (without hills!) do you think a 6 year old is capable of walking?

I plan to work part time after we move so I imagine I will end up using the car on those days anyway, either to drop DD off at school or a childminder before school if there is no breakfast club.

If school is too far away to walk to, do your children have local friends still? Do other parents from further away use the school?

OP posts:
brimfull · 16/01/2008 12:50

about a 1.5m away
20-25 minute walk
god that sounds slow

castille · 16/01/2008 12:50

5 miles. We used to live closer but we moved house and didn't want to move the children. It's a great school, DS will probably go there too, unless the traffic gets so bad I can't bear it any more...

Elasticwoman · 16/01/2008 12:50

Our primary school is 2 or 3 mins walk from our house, no roads to cross. From about age 6 our dc have been allowed to walk to and from school on their own (although in practice they are often accompanied).

Distance from school and ease of journey were large factors in our decision to buy the house.

dayofftomorrow · 16/01/2008 12:56

Our local authority expects children up to year three to walk up to two miles and from year 4 to walk 3 miles above this they provide free transport to our school (about half the kids) some travel about ten miles each way on the coach

islandofsodor · 16/01/2008 16:42

Dd and ds go to school about 7/8 miles away. It takes about 30mins by car in themorning and 20 mins in the afternoon when the traffic is better.

haggisaggis · 16/01/2008 16:46

Open door.
Cross lane.
Go through school gates.
About 1 minute!

FlllightAttendant · 16/01/2008 16:56

about a mile or two, and up a very steep hill so we drive takes us 3 minutes. Want to start walking soon but ds only 4 and not likely to make it unless we leave at 6am.

FlllightAttendant · 16/01/2008 16:57

we go there btw because nearer one is sh*t and people whose kids go there told me not to send mine. So I didn't!

cece · 16/01/2008 17:03

1 and half miles. I drive as it takes an hour and half if I walk both ways (that included hanging around waiting for classes to come out - Not gossiping )