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?

Completely normal for us who live in the sticks , especially if you live in an area without school sixth forms. We have 5 secondary schools in our borough but none have sixth forms so you can easily be an hour by public transport from the college. They go in every day obviously!

Gosh, these are huge commutes!!

Half an hour walk to the station, an hour on the train. He has to get up at 6am for morning lessons. I'm surprised at how well he does it, though he's never needed much sleep (joys of adhd!)

Typical week for my 17 year old:

Monday: Up between 7-8 and wider study till 11, bus to sixth form at 12 then back again for 4.30ish. Back out for dance class at 6.30, home at 9.

Tuesday: I take her in pick her up so we leave at 8-8.30, she then gets the bus straight back to be at work 4.30-5.30. Wider study time/wind down time after dinner.

Wednesday: Bus in about 8am, back about 2.30pm. Wider study in the afternoon then work 5-7. Although for the next few months her driving lesson will be in a Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday: I take her again and we leave between 8-8.30, back for about 5 and she does wider study in the evening.

Friday: Same as Thursday but back at dance from 6.30-9.30 .

Saturday & Sunday: At least 3-4 hours of wider study on each day.

Studying A Levels is hard! She’s exhausted most of the time, her Dad thinks I do too much for her but I’m not really sure when she has time for chores! But even then she does more than he does around the house 😩

She would probably like a longer commute as she could use the time to do her wider study and wouldn’t have time to work.

12 minutes car, 10 minute train, 5 minute walk

DD used to do a 10 min walk to the bus stop. Then a 30 min journey on the bus, directly to college.

A million years ago I had a 20m walk and a 40m bus.

But I had to leave 1 hour 45m for school in morning and possibly an hour in evening from y7-11 as rush hour buses were 1x6 chance of getting on one. So was either early or barely on time. So for me it was much less!

Again a million years ago 🤣

30 minute bus, 25 minute train and 10 minute walk or one hour bus depending what fits with her classes. At school she had a one hour bus journey so she’s used to the commute.

About 25 minutes walking - 15 minutes to station at one end, 10 minutes at the otber end. Two trains, one is 5-10 minutes, the other 15 minutes. So yes, it can be about an hour, though in practice we can give DD a lift which cuts out some of the walking or even one of the trains. On the first day I drove her there which was 25 minutes.

Mine was an hour and a half using public buses, then shortened to an hour when a space came up on the dedicated council school bus.

I drop ds at the school bus stop at 7.45 and he gets to school at about 8.30.

He's been doing that journey since he was 11, and copes fine.

It’s not actually far but due to train and bus times, she needs to leave the house at 7:30am for a 9am start. Coming home, she finishes at 4pm and once she’s waited for the bus and train, gets into the station just before 5pm.

Door to door, it’s 1:35 each way.

One hour to get there. It’s a 10 minute walk to the bus stop and then a 50 minute journey. Coming home can take up to 90 minutes depending of which buses she takes.
she has to leave at 7:30 to make it there for 9 due to bus timings but it’s only 2.5 days and the half day is a lunch time start so not too bad.

I went an hour to college, on a good day, sometimes worse if traffic was bad. One of my dad’s was a 30 minute walk to college though I dropped her on my way to work and sometimes picked her up if timings worked out. My other daughters college was over 90 minutes by public transport but she boarded

My da went to the college 15 minutes walk away. However dependent on what you want to study some are doing 1-1.5hr journeys via bus /train.

Out of curiosity those who say their children were travelling for an hour each way from year 7 was that to private school or rural?

Im suburbs and you can walk to a secondary school within 30 minutes from nearly everywhere locally and also in the city. An hours travel by public transport or 20 minutes by car you’d be going to school 10 miles away.

Why are people not making more of a fuss about shit public transport options for 6 formers? We had reasonable success in getting our buses changed and improved, as they are subsidised services (but run by commercial providers as normal bus services) that are supposed to get kids to college.

Because it's flogging a dead horse in our local area with buses. We are semi rural and don't have any regular bus service. But the trains are quite good.

It should be 25 minutes. It took 1 hour 15 on Tuesday morning due to traffic. It's only one bus and should be a quicker commute than his journey to secondary school was.
I used to travel and hour and a half to secondary school. It really isn't so bad.

Home to college, 10 min walk, 35-45 min bus, 5 min walk so around an hour.

Home to school (since year 7) 20 minute walk, 10 min train, 15 minute walk so approx 45-50 minutes. Get home 50 mins after school finishes. If I collect by car it's appeox 20 min drive.

35-50 minutes driving each way depending on traffic

My DD's was an hour, 20 mins walk, 20 mims train, 15 mins walk. But I gave her a lift on mornings when she had a 9am start as it was near my work. There was also a bus which meant 15 mins walk half an hour bus, 10 mins walk and was cheaper especially after she turned 18 and could no longer use a railcard in the mornings. There were endless strikes and cancellations on the trains so alternatives were essential.

Mine chose to do most of her college work during free periods, in the library or coffee shops in town so her evenings were relatively free. Also if she stuck around town till 5 there was the option of a lift home with me.

15 minutes walk

@itsgettingweird if you factor in walking to and from station it doesn't have to be that far to take an hour, so not necessarily private or rural.

We are in a small town with one secondary school which is not well thought of. There are grammar schools in two neighbouring towns so a large minority of kids from our town travel approx 1 hour (including walking) via either bus or train to school. Each town is 5-6 miles away.

Eg 20 min walk to station 10 min train 15 min walk to school =45 mins

Or 10 min walk to bus stop, 45 min bus ride, 5 min walk to school =1 hour.

It's really common here and seen as the norm.

15min bus 10min walk. As a pampered princess who has been chauffeured everywhere until now its exhausting for her 😂