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?

It depends on the time of day. My daughter has just started a 6th form college and when she has to be there for 9am, it’s 50 minutes in the car. At quieter times it’s 25 minutes.

20-25 minute walk, maybe 25-30 if at the other building.

Our high school was 5 mins away, and all on ground level, the college has a lot of stairs, so she's complaining it's a lot!😆

An hour and 15 minutes, 15 minutes walking at either end. It’s really not an issue unless you have ferried them everywhere.

Both my sons chose the same college. For my eldest our local college didn't do his A- levels and for my middle son our 2 local colleges didn't offer the best sports course. Hence the 50 minute travel each way in a good day.

Ds is doing four a-levels, so he's in each day and not much spare time in each of them. It just is what it is.

About an hour and twenty minutes. It’s a bit of a niche course at an agricultural college, hence the long journey. We have two really good sixth forms in our town, either of which he could have cycled or got the bus to, but he chose this one! In Y12 he was getting the college bus which took 1hr 20 (but sometimes much longer if the roads were bad or it had snowed) and cost about £35 a week for three return trips. He passed his driving test in the summer holidays so is now driving there, it takes almost as long as the bus- quicker by 10-15 mins if he’s lucky, but he prefers it and it’s cheaper.

Around 30 mins walk/ bus - London

fifteen min drive. DD has health issues and so I drive her to school, then park up at train station near school and go to work. Some days she comes home on bus - as it’s downhill to the bus stop so that’s do-able. Otherwise I try and take a late lunch and pick her up. She is doing 4 A levels and has University admissions tests to apply for. 1hr each way isn’t too bad, like any commute it takes some getting used to when new to it.

No he’s definitely not up gaming or anything - he’s really good at going to bed by 10-10.30pm, always has been, never had to battle him thankfully 😅!

Mine had a 1 hr 25 minute journey on the bus. So nearly THREE hours round trip. It took 15 minutes in the bloody car. 🙄(30 minutes round trip obvs!)

So I always took them. Fortunately I was able to as I had a car, and flexible/part time working hours - still do. (This was 12-13 years ago.)

He’s not moaning he’s tired at all, it’s my own observation that he’s knackered this week!
I know he’ll adapt once he settles in.

Only a 10 min walk now. His secondary school was 45 mins bus each way. He was tired at the start of year 7 but soon got used to it.

My son is autistic and I totally understand what you’re saying about having downtime!

He isn’t complaining he’s tired, but I can see that he is. Hopefully as he gets used to it he won’t be so tired.

Half an hour walking, there and back. He's not complaining about it anyway 🍀

I live rurally and some children at my DC school travel up to 2 hours each way. From age 11.

That’s good. Hopefully he’ll adapt to the commute pretty soon. Not just the extra time it takes but also a new journey is perhaps likely to have some tension associated, versus a familiar one.

Sometimes that’s just how far it is. For 16-18 here there is one school option 30 minute walk, or one college, 30 minute walk, plus 40 minute bus, plus 10 minute walk. Or much less time in a car, but impacts parents ability to work.

My daughter used to set off at 7.10am to ensure she got there for 9am, the public transport times didn’t align very well, but she was doing performing arts (so was physical all day too) and that’s where she wanted to go.

30 mins in the car. Day starts at 8:30 and finishes 4pm.

Ten minute walk. It's one of the reasons he chose to stay at his current school, and one of the reasons we bought the house we have. I think it's easy to underestimate the impact of a long daily commute, especially with a heavy homework load.

DD has no choice as it is agricultural college.
But there aren't any 6th forms in our market town so everyone is likely to have a min 30min journey wherever they go.

About an hour and a half on the bus. I drop him off for his early starts which takes 35 minutes he has to get the bus home. Of he got the bus in the morning he'd had to leave at 6.30am, never going to happen!

1 h - 1.5 hrs depending if he gets the direct train or the train where he needs to change.

My youngest left college last year, and eldest the year before . It was 20-30 mins. It’s actually 10 mins in the car at quiet times, but in the morning the traffic is so bad as there is a secondary school not far away that it takes longer. In the afternoon, the buses leave 20 mins after end of classes and the traffic lighter, and they had a 5-10 mins walk up from the main road. However, I know they take students from up to 25 miles away whose commute must be far worse. The bus timetables suggest the first pick ups of the day are between 7.15 and 7.30.

We are lucky that such a good college was close by.

An hour, been doing it since Y7.

He is expert at doing homework on the bus and napping in the car.