6th form - how far is it reasonable for pupils to commute?

[newhouseplans]

There isn't a 6th form where we live.

Two 6th forms DS is interested in are a train ride away, one is a 35 mins on the train, the other 20 mins.

But once you add on the bus to the train station, a short walk either end etc, it's more like 1.5 hours for the further one (with 2 trains every hour) and 1 hour for the nearer one (with 3 trains every hour).

So, both are a fair distance.

Do you think the extra half hour each way makes much difference?

There are lots of other factors involved with the decision, but just wondering what others think?

If the further one suited DS better, could it be worth the extra hour's commute every day?

He's 16? What does he think. He's going to be the one doing a journey. Has he tried the journey a few times to see how it is

Mine was 90 minutes. It was too much looking back.

Can the commuting time be used practically for reading and doing homework? It's not ideal, but if it's not wasted time that's something

Both of mine rejected local sixth form, one travels an hour and the other travelled a good 90 minutes each way, mix of bus and train. It was a hassle but he REALLY wanted that school so was prepared to do the journey!

Fairly usual where we live, lots of kids travel a really long way for college.

commuting time is mostly dead time - you can’t use the time to do anything useful and you never get that time back. 1.5hrs one way is 15hrs per week of wasted time and I think that is too much for anyone.

Really, do you want to tell that to the people on my train that have laptops out working?

My 12 year old is walking to the station, 25 min train, 10 min bus every day for school. Just over 1 hour each way. So do most of his friends.
He reads on way there, homework on way back.
If a 11/12 year old can do it, why would a 16 year old not be able to? especially with 6 form having much shorter days/weeks

Our 6th form is about 13 miles away, village college secondary system with a few large sixth forms and technical college in the city.

Not very far geographically, but rubbish public transport so minimum journey time for my kids door to door was between 1 & 1.5 hours.
Plus, having to get the early bus to ensure there for a 9am start would often then mean they were there just after 8am so more wasted time.

They just got on with it, but it was painful.

My DD has just finished 6th form. She had a 15 minute drive to station, then an hour or so train journey, then a 20 minute walk.

She wasn't phased by this one bit, she was desperate to go to this particular 6th form so was willing to do the journey.

DC1 has just finished 6th form. Although the 6th form she chose was only 7 miles away (25 mins by car off-peak), the city traffic is awful and so to get the two buses at rush hour took around 90mins.

I think she definitely underestimated how tiring and frustrating this would be. But she loved college and would chose the same choice again, especially bearing in mind that the much less good alternative was still 60mins away at peak times.

Plus a couple of times a week she either started late or finished early which shaved about 40mins off the journey.

It depends on the subject, the jounrney and the child. What can he do in that time? Train with seats? Lots of reading, note making, revision etc. Train with standing room only, not so good. Depends on the walk too. Safe pavement, healthy to have a bit of a regular walk in your daily routine. Fast road with no pavement and no lighting, no, I wouldn't be letting my child do it at that age, when they have the worst possible judgement. Depends on the reason for choosing the school. If it offers the subject he wants, and the other school doesn't. then obviously that makes a big difference. Lots to take into account.

If doing alevels, is there even time in the day to spend 3 hours travelling? 10 hours sleep, 8 hours school, 1 hour exercise, 2 hours meals/shower, 3 hours travelling. That’s leaves zero hours for homework or downtime. Fine for Btech, impossible for alevels.

Will he be commuting with friends? That will make the time go faster. Is there a “comfortable” place to wait for the bus?

I live in an area with good comps but some kids commute an hour to grammar school. They don’t seem to mind at all.

Are you judging good by academic results? Remember that if your son plans to study A-level English then it doesn’t matter that all the A-level maths people got A stars because it’s the quality of English teachers that matter to him.

If ds is unsure then I’d get him to do the journey on a rainy day and see what he says. I think he’ll be happier with the nearer one. Is he learning to drive? How much quicker is the journey in a car?

I had two buses and a 15 min walk each end for my sixth form . Think it’s pretty common to have to commute further for six form

The other down side is where do the other kids live?

My DS is considering a college that’s 20 mins on the train, but 4 trains an hour. 15 mins walk one side 10 mins the other side. I think that’s very do-able and will be good for his independence. His school is only 5 mins walk away and I can tell you he wastes more than 15 hrs a week doing nothing at home!

BUT my colleague’s daughter is also considering same college, train in from the opposite side of the town the college is in, and they live more than an hour’s drive from us. One of the benefits of college is it should expand their circle of friends, but if everyone is so spread out that may be harder.

I think 3hrs a day commuting is a lot and wouldn't do it unless the course/college is considerably better than the nearer one.

Would he be driving by the second year, and if so would that make the journey much faster? A year isn't too long to cope.

I did two buses, an hour in total each way from 11-18 in the 90s so didn't have the advantage of technology. He can surely do some work on the way if he needs to.
That "dead time" is also down time when he can game or listen to music or read etc.

What are the college hours?

My son's commute to college is just shy of 2 hours each way. It's a huge commute and, in view of that, he's not expected to undertake paid employment. It's quite social tho as he meets friends on the way. The college he attends is exceptional for the subjects he studies so it's worth it. Hopefully he'll pass his driving test in the next year and be able to drive there which will take the journey down to about 45 minutes.

My DD had quite a long commute. An hour on a good day, 90 minutes not uncommon.
She was usually travelling with friends so it was sociable time or she'd chill and listen to music.
It never bothered her. She enjoyed the time either way.

It's up to your son I think. An extra hour a day for a course and or college that he likes much more and will be more interesting and better suited to what he wants to do, and/or will have more social opportunities/clubs, friendships etc, isn't much. An extra hour a day for a college that might have one or two tiny advantages over the other college is a lot.

My daughter had a 40 min train journey, with a 5/10 min car journey and a 10 min walk either side. The journey wasn’t dead time to her as she made friends going in the same direction. She’s a very sociable soul so that was really important to her and better than coming straight home and being alone.

In fact we moved house when Ds started sixth form (he’d been previously doing an even longer commute to a different school). He and I thought he’d enjoy the fact that sixth form was in walking distance but he hated getting home at 3.30! He was new to the school and travelling with others would have helped him make friends more quickly.

The main downside was all DD’s friends lived nearer school so she had to travel a lot at weekends. Also, I was stressed around exam time as trains can be unreliable! It was fine though.

Eh? Not impossible in the slightest. Colleges typically provide around 5hrs teaching per A level per week. Even with a few extra hours of enrichment/tutorials etc they are only in college around 18-23 hrs weekly, so there's plenty of capacity to get work done and have a social life if you're organised.

It’s a slight tangent, but does anyone know why do alevels in college require so much less work than alevels in schools?

Do they though? Here is a link for a state grammar school's A level provision:

https://www.urmstongrammar.org.uk/page/?title=A+Levels&pid=84

It's 5 hours per subject per week, the same as local 6th form colleges.

The fact that pupils are physically in school buildings for longer doesn't necessarily mean that they are getting more A level specific teaching.

Perhaps independent schools offer more? My DC's college this year has 33 Oxbridge offers so I can only assume that 5 hours is sufficient.