How long is your teenagers commute to college / 6th form?

[NanaStrikesAgain]

My son has a 1hr commute now to 6th form, he’s exhausted, but hopefully he’ll get used to it after a few weeks.

Im just curious how long other kids are travelling at 16-18yrs?

Me too! Sooo much time wasted in the day. I'm feeling so lucky!

About an hour. 10 mins walk to station. 15 mins on train. Then half an hour's walk. They did that from age 11 - 18, so a 16 year old really should be able to cope once they get used to it.

I don't think it felt like pure time wasted for them. It was quite social!
I have a smilar length commute walking and train. But again, I like walking and reading so don't feel it is pure wasted time. I much prefer it to driving, which is wasted time for me.

45 mins each way on London public transport - same as they've done since age 11 because it is the same school

20 minutes by car, about 30/40 mins on the bus but in reality much longer because of traffic and roadworks. Think it took over 90 minutes on Tuesday 🙄

The main moan is the lessons finish at ten past whereas the bus is on the hour. So there’s always at least a 50 minute wait.
the train would be quicker (about 5/10 minutes) but there’s a 30ish minute walk to the station at both ends. That’s assuming the trains are running on time too, which is not a given!

45 mins walk there and 45 mins walk back. The other options were all a short train ride away, but with walking to the station and to the college at either end, they would have been about an hour, and a bit more stressy.
Up to GCSEs he’s had a 10-20 mins walk so it was a lot more, but he’s just not fussed at all. I was fully expecting requests for lifts etc but never once even when offered.

Have to say though after a summer off, despite a pretty active time of it, he’s knackered back at college - takes a while to get used to it again!

10 minute walk

15 minute walk. Some of these journeys are ridiculous. Would be interested to know if students are going to the nearest provider or deliberately choosing further away as that's the only place the course is available (or other good reason). Also I guess how often you have to go in - an hour or more twice a week is more palatable than if it's every day.

From age 11 I had 1hr 15 mins. Car, train, bus to school. Then bus, train, a 15 minute walk then another bus to get home so 1hr 30 minutes unless I missed the quick train, then at least 2hrs
All so I could attend Catholic School

10 min walk.
There is a better college a hour away by public transport, but in the end we decided it was better to go somewhere closer and have the extra time in the day. Plus her friends are close and she ambles home for study periods when the library is full.

For us, we live in a largish town, Surrey area, pretty highly populated. Infant school was 5 mins walk, junior 10, and high school 15-20 mins walk. All the high schools in our area - unless you’re paying for them or you’re catholic - stop after GCSEs, so everyone has to go to find a sixth form college or other type place.

Nearest one to us is 45 mins walk away - there aren’t any buses that help much, perhaps if he walked for 20 mins in one direction he could wait for a bus that takes 10 mins ish but it’s not much of a time saving what with buses being unreliable when they turn up. We are lucky, many others live a longer walk away with nothing else closer.
Other than that it’s walk to the station and head a couple of stops down the line and then walk for 15-20 mins at the other end.

There really aren’t any other options for a levels nearby. It’s not that we’re deliberately going miles away to a super selective place. And we aren’t out in the sticks - it’s a busy town area with loads of schools etc. Just sixth forms are massive places taking people from miles around, so you have to travel a long way to get to them. On the plus side though, they offer huge ranges of options and are flexible with switching courses and timetabling. And it’s way easier than I worried it might be when I had a little 11 year old - he doesn’t mind at all and just walks with friends and chats all the way.

eta - he has to go in every day, I don’t know of any of his friends who have a day with no timetables lessons. But some days start a little later and some finish a little earlier, depending on timetable.

10 minutes walk, 15-20 minutes bus. This is the nearest for us. I could drive her but I've got younger children so the timings don't really work with the school run.

30 minute walk or about 7 minutes drive. Some of these commutes sound exhausting 😔

About an hour - it’s only 3 miles away, but it’s about a 10 min walk to the bus stop, 25 mins on the bus, then 20-25 min walk to college. It’s annoying as there is a more direct bus, but timings are rubbish.

fortunately It’s an ok walk, through the shopping centre and town so able to get a breakfast roll on route if time 😁

It would be about 20 minutes but buses are only one an hour and one gets him there too early and the next too late so one of us drives him there and back. It's kind of on the way anyway to DS2's school, about 40 mins away (we drive him as well as there's not usually a seat on the bus). But he can drive himself in if he passes his test in February 🙂)

Due to train times and lesson start times, DS has to catch a train 1.5 hours before his first lesson. This gives him ~40 mins to get from the station to the college rather than the ~10 mins the later train would give him - a buffer he has been glad of several times already due to delays and cancellations! I've been dropping him at the station in the mornings otherwise it's a 45 min walk as the bus times don't usually align with the train times. Fridays are his earliest start - his train is at 06.31. It was his choice to attend this college as it's a specialist sports provider.

Is that door to door or 1 hour on a train bus.

my 11 year old is over an hour door to door due to the timing of the trains, I don’t think it is too much but I will forewarn you that it always feels worse in winter when they are travelling in the dark.

At least an hour each way on
( unreliable and expensive) bus. It's crap. She's knackered.

There’s a lot of time wasted for the kids I know. College lessons finish at 4.30 but the train isn’t till 5.15, so DD doesn’t get home until 6.45. And we are only 10 mins drive from the station - I feel for her friends who are 30 mins from the station.

My son leaves home at 7:00 am, and a 15 minute journey in the car to the station for the 7:25 train. The train journey is an hour, then 10 minutes walk at the other end for college. It's one hour and forty minutes door to door. This is on a good day, without cancellations, delays or terminating mid-journey! Same on the way home and often doesn't get home until 6:30.He had to drop his fourth A level in year 12 because he was utterly exhausted and couldn't keep up with homework (no, he can't work on the train and I wouldn't expect him to). He got onto the Cambridge STEMSMART programme but couldn't get home in time for tutorials. He's just started year 13 and I am worried how he's going to manage. He's autistic too, so he finds the train journey very draining and difficult to cope with. I anticipate some rescue missions in the car this year, especially nearer exams.

It has affected him academically and I'm not sure we would make the same decision about this college if we'd known how hard it was going to be.

Dd2 has just turned 17 and is in her 2nd year. 7 min drive to station (some days leaving house at 7.30am), 12 min train journey, waiting for a bit then 5 min second train (obvs frequently delayed/cancelled ie lots of hanging around). Then 5 min walk to college. Generally at least an hour each way on a good day.

We are in Devon, she picked the best choice for her but the only other state option (where dd1 went) would have been an hour each way on unreliable buses given the traffic, so no better.

She had her first driving lesson yesterday - all the hanging around and being let down focuses their minds to learn.

She is also knackered but has always been sensible about taking herself off to bed to be able to get up with lots of whinging in the mornings.

45 minutes, 10 minutes by car then 35 minutes on the bus. But he’s been doing that since year 7.

15 mins by bike. Both of mine stayed on at their high school, which has a decent sixth form and they didn’t feel any need to change for A levels.

It feels like a rush for us getting everyone up and out to leave at 7.50.

It genuinely would be tricky losing 2hours a day to commuting. Both energy wise and time wise. I've never regularly commuted rhat far to work so its quite a foreign concept even though I know people do catch buses from further afield to get to my children's 6th form!

(ETA - were an autistic family if that makes a difference so maybe need that period to wind down before starting homework more? No idea. I think sooo many adults prefer wfh in order to take commuting out of the day it must be knackering for many kids. Especially with homework and study on top. Or if they work at the weekend. I realise it isn't a choice for many - I'm genuinely feeling lucky for my kids as they're tired as it is!)

it varies but usually a minimum of 90 mins each way…each day is different which is even more frustrating. Today was up at 5.45am, out the house at 6.30am dropping her 20 mins away on the bus route (this avoids multiple buses). Bus takes 1hr 10, then a 10 min walk at the other end, and that’s on a day where her first lesson is 9am. The later bus won’t get her there in time (only one per hour).

coming home she averages arrival at the bus stop between 5pm and 6pm. A lot of it is the ‘one bus per hour’ again - she can often finish a lesson but narrowly miss a bus so she has to hang about in college almost a whole hour.

it does feel like very long, tiring days and she more often than not has to stand all the way too.