Son will be going to a school 11 miles away, how to manage friendships, advice needed

[Longingforsummer583]

So my son has been lucky enough to get a place at a specialist engineering and business school . It is a free school but you need to take an entrance exam. It has an 18 mile catchment area and all students arive on school transport.
He has been at his current local high school for 2 years and will be moving to the new one from September (year 9). You can't go any earlier .
He has made friends at his current school who live in our local area but i am worried they will drop him once he's left their school.
Whilst he will make friends (I hope) at the new school, I am concerned about the socialising outside of school aspect. Particularly when he goes to the college, such as parties , those kind of teenage experiences.
A potential friend can live 18 miles in the other direction from us so would be 29 miles one way or a 60 mile round trip to see them. He won't get home from school until about 6pm and on weekends he plays for a local football team. More concerned about school holidays really .I work full time so would not be able to drive him to see anyone .
Anyone else have a child in a similar situation? My son is very social and I want to make sure we are making the right decision. His school currently is a below average comprehensive with a lot of badly behaved kids

Sometimes in these situations the kids stay in the town the college is in after their day, then catch a later bus back so they can socialise.

Both my DD went to a school with a large catchment area - we lived as far as we could from the school to the south. Both my DD developed strong friendships with girls who lived on the northern edge of the catchment area. These friendships were important to them and we did all we could to facilitate them - usually one girl went home from school on the bus with the other girl and I did the 35 mile round trip to collect her, or return friend, in the evening. They met up in town at weekends but we had no buses after 6pm so collection always down to DH or me - until they were 17 and passed their driving test. DD2 is now early 40s and is still friends with these girls so the effort was well worth it.

They don’t really see each other after school. They see each other at weekends and you facilitare this @Longingforsummer583 . If you are paying for transport maybe ask if he can go home with another student on their bus.? If there is room though? My DD was 30 mins drive from her prep and others were similar in the opposite direction. You just have to make it work! Or don’t do it.

DS went to a school without a catchment area (private). The friendship group used to meet somewhere in the middle. It was hard at first but then they get old enough to use public transport. If your DS will be in yr9 he should be ok with that.

Dd went to a school with a very wide catchment. They had longer days and she stayed behind with friends after school fairly regularly, either to do activities, or to get food. They met up at weekends in the city centre and in the holidays they had a lot of sleepovers (usually at our house). It worked fine and it was nice to get to know her friends better by having them round.

DDs did lots of activities. If there’s a dedicated school bus though, you miss it!

Our school is 20miles away and our kids don't get home til 7pm. Sleepovers are your friend!