Sorry another one about grammar schools - a poll

[clutteredup]

How far would you be prepared for your DC to travel to a grammar school given the local secondary school is a 'failing' one?

How long it would take would be my criteria, rather than the distance. For example if there was a convenient train line they could travel further in less time than a bus in rush hour.

I think an hour is about the pain threshold. Anything over that is really not a good use of time. If it was going to take longer than that to get to an acceptable school, I'd move house, tbh.

I think frogs is right. When I went to school there were lots of girls who took an hour to get to school on two buses, so when we moved house and were 40 miles away it didn't take us any longer on the motorway than a lot of girls on the bus!

More pertinent question is - how far would YOU be prepared to travel when they forget their instrument/important homework/letter/PE kit etc

5 miles is my limit...

Elling - b*llocks to that, let 'em get a detention, I say. Improves their memories no end.

So by train it would be alright for an hour's journey - is that door to door?

You're right of course - I was far too soft...

I think an hour total journey time would be the absolute outside edge of being reasonable.

We have a grammar which is a bit outside of that and I decided it wasn't really practicable for an 11 yr-old, so we didn't consider it as an option.

But if your alternatives are extremely grim and you are not in a position to go private, then maybe you would be inclined to stretch those limits.

I couldn't generalise- it would depend on the child and the schools. I just remember that a friend lived either a 20 minute bus ride or an eight minute train ride (including a stop) from school.

frogs - lol @ the memory improvement. Journey-wise I think the maximum ANYONE should travel is one hour door-to-door. One of the reasons we did not go for lovely nearest grammar [sob!] is that it involves two buses and 20 mins walk each end (probably about 1h 10 in all), and the change in the middle wld involve our polite 11 year-old trying to cram on through a bundles of pushy people with sharp elbows...

Once they are in senior school, parents do not take in forgotten items.

I remember once dropping off DS's games kit, and it was very much frowned upon.

In answer to the OP, I think an hour is about it. That's what I did when I was at school, and it still made for a long and tiring day. My DSs get home about an hour after the end of the school day, although the actual bus journey is only about 20 minutes.

DS went to grammar school about 8 miles away.For the first 2 years he got the coach which stopped about 100 yards away - but ours was almost the first stop so he got the bus at 7.00 & got to school at 8.10(school started at 8.20)He'd get home at about 4.45. In his 3rd year he started taking the train (DH dropped him at the station on his way to work) Left home 7.35, got 7.45 train, got to town 7.55, 20 minute walk to school,total 40 minutes - coming home he usually walked home from station, so total time about 50 minutes.

I don't remember ever going in to take anything he'd forgotten, but then he isn't the type who forgets stuff; luckily DD went to school in our town so it wasn't far to take her clarinet in when she forgot iot (I'd paid for the damn lessons, so I didn't intend her to miss them, I never bothered to take her PE kit)

Depends on the child's stamina - dd1 leaves home at 7.10, gets back 4.50 - by no means unusual round here in the sticks but not nice in the dark mornings/evenings. Didn't bother putting dd2 in for 11 plus partly cos she'd have slept all day in class! Local comp certainly isn't failing but I didn't think it was the right place for dd1 for all sorts of reasons.

Yes, I think door to door that's about acceptable, though not ideal.

It also depends on how often the trains run and how full they are -- I wouldn't let ds commute from us to the London Oratory school for example, though plenty do, because it involves an hour's tube journey into central London in the rush hour. A journey of similar length going out of town is quite another matter, as you're going against the flow of traffic so the trains will be emptier and the whole experience much more relaxed.

Also beware if trains don't run v. often, particularly if you're looking at a school with a strict lateness policy.

hi i teach at a grammar school in Kent and we take pupils from Essex (about 2 or 3 a year) and pupils from Newham and the south east london boroughs (all approx 10-15 miles away)