Concerned son will be a target

[Picnics4all]

Considering sending my son to the excellent local grammar school but don't want to live in the town it's in as it's a bit rough. As I don't drive I'd have to send him in on the train. But worried he’d b a target for local kids going to other schools. I used to d thavevto walk to & from private school every day & the comprehensive kids hated me on sight & would always throw things/shout things, luckily never got violent. Thoughts? I think it's that or relocate to somewhere like Marlow (but £££! & we’d have to start from scratch with not knowing anyone 😕) Thanks

Maybe post with the school name in the title and ask about experience s of public transport on there.

Surely if it's the local grammar there must be lots of local kids going there?
If there was that much of an issue, I'm sure you would have heard something.

Ok, I'm talking about Henry Floyd Grammar School in Aylesbury.

I was bullied on the school bus from grammar to home by the local comprehensive kids 😂 character building stuff. The girl from my school who also caught the bus ended up my lifelong best friend! So, every cloud.

But you do sound a bit snobby and like you’ve kept your son wrapped in cotton wool. Send him out there, it’ll be good for him. He’ll be fine.

You could do the journey now to see how many grammar school kids are typically on the train, and whether they seem to be targeted or not. But its much less likely these days - people take bullying a lot more seriously. The public contact schools if they witness it on public transport, and schools do intervene if they can identify the culprits, even if the incident was outside of the school gates.

As contingency, you could consider learning to drive.

Ugh it’s so sad that this is a risk.

Could he perhaps take off his tie and out his blazer in his bag when he leaves school? But I bet he’d forget.

Or can you ask someone to walk with him? Like an older kid?

There are only so many places you can live to be able to get the train to SHF. I grew up in one of them and got the train to Aylesbury. All the kids on the train will be going to the grammars, so no issue on the train in terms of bullying due to the school you go to. He'll be leaving the house well before local kids are walking to school, and getting home well after local school finishes so unlikely to regularly come across kids from the local school.

At the Aylesbury end, there are plenty of SHF kids walking to and from the train station, it's really close. I think you are thinking too hard and imagining issues that don't actually exist.

My kids travel to Aylesbury schools by bus, it's pretty much all grammar school pupils and yes, there are still ones that act like idiots and are a pain in the arse to other passengers. Current pita on their bus are from AGS. Just because the school is good, doesn't mean all the kids are angels.