Chosing a school - how important is distance / the school run?

[Nasturtiumsalad]

I am also looking at primary schools for our daughter. We have two main choices:

School A: better academically, warm envirmonment, faith school (this is important to us), but a 20 min drive or 45 mins on public transport and would have to rely on setting up a school run in order to manage it (we both work, in a different direction to the school).

School B: OFSTED outstanding (though report was a few years ago) and very well regarded locally, though on gut feeling we found the environment cold and it was not amazing, taking a bulge class so will be in temporary accomodation for the first year on a different site, non-faith, but 5 mins walking distance.

Overall, we prefer school A, except for the school run, which is a real headache. Any advice on how much this matters would be appreciated.

Actually, it was DH who looked round School B - I couldn't get out of work for the tours (always at 2:15pm) :(, so it's his gut feeling about the atmosphere.

This afternoon I managed to speak to a colleague who I discovered has three children in school B (I knew he lived near us) who said school B was fantastic. He also said he thought the atmosphere was warm and nurturing.

teacherwith2kids I think I agree with you. The point that I am trying to make is that it is actually distance from home to school that counts rather than length of journey in minutes. We live 10 mins walking distance (0.5 miles) from 2 primary schools (one outstanding and one good) and this may be too far to qualify for the "outstanding" one in recent years. But some parents in my area instead of having the Good school as one of their preferences opt for other outstanding schools more than a mile away which are oversubscribed. The result of missing out this preference (which is now also oversubscribed) has meant that they have not been allocated any of their preferences at all. Hope this puts my comment in context.

I would really consider school B strongly. You go and have a look etc...

Long school run is a pain and I work from home (we have since moved school to one closer - impact on quality of life was huge).. A walkable neighbourhood school is really not to be sniffed at.

For primary I'd go for school B. As well as avoiding the school run every day, school B would probably give you the advantage of local kids to play with after school or at weekends, and when DD is older she could go on her own (I loved that day, when my kids started to go to school on their own ). I didn't go to a local primary and I think this colours my opinion here.

And while not everyone can go to their kids' assemblies, sports days etc. as well as parents evenings it's nice if you can, so do take your own commute into account too. There is far more of that than when I was at school - parents came for sports days, parents evenings and school fairs and that was about it, now they're always wanting you to go in for something! Not to mention there will be unavoidable trips to pick up sick children etc.

My kids are now at a non-local secondary - they go by bus - and while I know I made the right choice of school I do hate that they can't drop in on their friends and vice versa.

Gut feeling is important though, and none of us can judge that for you.

You should definitely go and see School B yourself. And take DH with you to see if he still thinks the same.
If the school has a summer fair coming up you could also consider going - it will give you a good insight into the "feel" of the school.

DD started off at the local primary school, 10 mins walk from our house. She hated it, and is now at another one which is 15 mins drive. I hate having to drive there, but she's happy.

Redsky great idea. I think the school fair is on Saturday so will go along.

Another person here sending my child to the nearest (12 min walk away) "OK" school. Many people near me drive their children 2 miles across town to get their kids into one of the "Outstanding" schools there.
The traffic it causes in our town is unbelievable. I also think you have to consider what will be the net gain of this slightly better school? And the side effects on your child from the drive - I am pretty convinced that any gain by going to a slightly better school will be lost by sitting in a car rather than walking/ scooting/ cycling to school, witnessing and experience different weather and the changing seasons, learning that to walk places is normal. Research does seem to indicate that morning exercise aids learning - which obviously a walk to school provides.
If faith is so important to you, can you get your child more involved in the church or read childrens bible study guides, etc?

I have to drive my DC to school, as it is the nearest school that they can get into.

If I could walk to school and have one down the road from me I would love it. Not just for my convenience but my DC miss out too - we don't liove near any of their friends, who are all about a mile or more away from us. Not convenient for playing out!

You sound like you are in my house! Our school A (Catholic, linked to church we attend) is lovely and would guarantee entry to the Catholic secondary school but is across the other side of town with a nightmare car park/drop off to contend with. School B (C of E) is 5-10 mins walk. I am still happy that we went for school B (occasional panic that she might not get into secondary school, but on past history there have always been enough spaces left over for non-Catholics who would be on the list behind us, so am hoping will be the same in a couple of years). School B had a "Good" OFSTED, a lot of people don't like it's open plan nature but DD2 is so happy that she's at a local school, and I don't have any hassle about getting her there. Take the word of other parents, and try to get a quick visit there yourself to make sure you are happy with it.

Plus points as well for a local school, you might find other parents who are in nearby roads so you have extra back up for when you need to work late/have some crisis. I've asked my neighbour to pick up DD before and have done the same for her.

I agree with the majority. Distance / ease of travel is HUGELY important.
It's not just this next year, which you can mostly foresee, what about.....

If one of you is ill / has an accident / operation /confinement for other reason ? Local walking school, other parents will collect as they are passing, no-one's going to drive for 3/4 hour to come and fetch your dc

When you are without the car (MOT / service / if it's stolen or in an accident)

When it snows

When your dc is older and wants to stay to things after school, but you have to pick up the younger child at normal time

When you have to get back to concerts, plays, parents' evenings etc

When they are older and want to walk home on their own

When they start wanting to spend some time at friends houses, or going out with friends, and said friend lives 20mins away on other side of school ?

yy Allpastyears, don't forget that your baby 3yo will soon be 10 and would love then to go to school by herself - good for you and her, but totally impossible if school is 20 mins' drive away.

In DD's year (she is in yr 6) just about everyone gets themselves to and from school because they all live so close which is great!

That post was mean to read "as allpastyears said...", sorry

All very good points Backforgood

DH did a practice run to School A this morning and it took him 30 mins (so he would have been late if it had been for real) and 30 mins on to work, plus he said that the journey was really stressful - school run / rush hour chaos.

So currently leaning towards School B, despite initially favouring School A.

A number of you have mentioned the importance of having local friends. I hadn't really thought about the importance of that - perhaps because I grew up in the countryside, really middle of nowhere and always had a long drive to school. (Even our dustbins got collected from about a mile away because the lorry couldn't get down our lane). I don't really have any "childhood" friends as a result. Hard to tell how much that ever affected me or not.

And bear in mind that, certainly in the early weeks, you won't want to dump and run. So you'll have to park, take child into school, hang around a bit, then go back to car and on to work. So realistically another 20 minutes at least.

School B, unless you feel really strongly about the faith school aspect.

It's not just about the logistics of the school run, but about the experience of being part of the community that builds around a local primary school. I suppose there are a few people who are not interested in this and largely opt out, but I've found this to be priceless.

It's not as if B is a bad school. That would be different. Your first impressions of a 'cold' environment could be wrong. Talk to other parents and see what they think.

'Agree that you need to check the criteria for admission to the faith school carefully before applying. For C of E schools there are 2 types VA (voluntary aided) which require church attendance or baptism and VC (voluntary controlled) where home-school distance may be more important than church attendance.'

Not necessarily. Our school is voluntary aided and being in catchment or having siblings both come before church attendance.

It's a seven year commitment.

Completely agree with everything that BackforGood and seeker said.

It's very difficult to predict what is going to happen in 2 years time, let alone 7. This is particularly important if you have a younger child. An age gap of only 3 years (average around here) will lock you into 10 years of this school run.

I hate our school run, even though its only about 10-12 minutes drive. DD was very unhappy in the local school so we had to look for another, our first choice was half an hour away, and sadly that really seemed too long. (two hours driving every day, not possible). Even the shorter distance is tricky. If DH is away in the car I have to sort out lifts etc, and I don't like the thought that getting to the girls involves a drive. (cars break down etc). It adds stress to our mornings. Would be much better to be able to walk up the road as we used to.

The one thing to remember is that your child will be required to be on time for school even on days when you are ill, or a sibling is ill, or the car has broken down. The fact that you have been chucking up all night doesn't count as an excuse.

Conversely, if a child is taken ill at school you will need to collect them. Pronto. Even if you've been chucking up all night yourself.

The difficulty with lift sharing is what happens when your own child is ill with an infectious illness: you can't take him in the car with the other children and you can't leave him behind.

This is why I gave up on the walking bus: dd was ill a lot so I kept letting people down at the last minute and causing havoc to the whole scheme.

Agree with most other posters that a decent school run is worth so much for you and your child (think how much longer their day is with the extra travel time too). And the whole social side (again, for both you and your child) is better if you live close by.

My children have a fair commute to a faith school. The travel is not as important as academic success and who they go to school with. I don't understand why people are so worried about school commutes. Don't regretmy choice, and wouldn't even think about trading our school for the nearest one.

" I don't understand why people are so worried about school commutes"

Have you actually rad the thread?