Which journey would you choose - walking to school logistical nightmare.

[3Dzieci]

We want our child, and eventually children, to walk to school if possible but this is proving to be complicated. We just don’t seem to have suitable safe walking routes which is pretty much forming the basis of our decision.

We’ve picked our 1st preference. A full primary 20 minutes walk away and second closest school. It has lots of advantages for us including not having to cross an extremely dangerous A-road with no crossings. PAN 60 and some years oversubscribed, others, undersubscribed.

Trying to decide on 2nd and 3rd.

We have 3 others to choose from, one I don’t like (but it happens to be our catchment). That leaves us with 2 schools which are very similar in terms of results, ofsted, pastoral care, general feeling, horrid journey and we can’t decide between them.

1. Full primary 25 minute walk away. Dangerous A-road to cross with no crossings but once over it there’s pavement all the way until having to cross another busy road at a junction (although it has good visibility) with no crossing there either. PAN 25. Undersubscribed, usually has about 23/24 in a class.
2. Full primary. 5-10 minute drive with parking available on the street outside (45 minute walk including roads with no pavements, about 1/3 of the journey on no pavements with no lighting). PAN 15 so mixed classes. Oversubscribed some years, undersubscribed others.

Catchment (for reference) CofE infants which feeds to juniors (guaranteed-ish). Meant to be 10 minute walk but have to cross dangerous A-road with no crossings, then go down some steep slippy unmaintained steps (which make up about 0.3 of the 0.4 miles to the school) that are best avoided in summer never mind winter. Alternative way is 25 minute walk which includes a section with no pavement on an unlit blind junction section under a bridge. PAN 45. Always undersubscribed only took 28 last year. Would get a place.

I dont think they are allowed to walk to and from primary until year 5. By then they should have more road sense and you can practice the route with them a few times

I was going to walk with my children to school.
There’s no way I’m letting a 4 year old do any of those journeys on their own. They’ll be lucky if I let them do the journey on their own when in year 5.

Just interested in which journey people would choose to get to to school, accompanying their child.

I would list school 1 and catchment as two and three.

Meanwhile, work with other parents to campaign for crossings on the A road.

This is what annoys me when people blather on about walking to school (and thats even if you can combine it with your work times)

Catchment and then no 1.
The ten minute walk would be a winner for me.
I would then start campaigning for a crossing patrol for the busy road.

Interesting, thank you. Leaning towards 1 because we can walk. But part of me thinking just going in the car would be better because it’s safer.

Catchment still a 25 minute walk unfortunately even though it’s supposed to be 10. The steps are dangerous. They are avoided by all parents who currently go to the catchment school. There’s been a few broken bones on those steps unfortunately.

There are ongoing campaigns. Been going on for over 10 years with no luck. I have signed the petitions and joined in with making a fuss about it. Latest is they are going to do another a review. One day hopefully!

@bellac11 what annoys you? (Not looking to argue, genuinely just want to understand what it is as I’m not understanding your comment). Work times etc don’t come into this just trying to see what others think would be the safer/ better route/journey.

What's wrong with using the car?! You are massively overthinking this.

Walking is great if it's safe and convenient.

Otherwise, do what you need to do...

Rain, snow(!), after sch clubs... work... drs appts...

What are the logistics like for the schools you’ve discounted/not considered for whatever reason? Do those have better walking options? Just thinking that if walking logistics are the basis of your decision then an alternative school you’ve not considered/discounted might offer that?

Personally i’d give up, take the car and pick the school based on its merits rather than how to get there.

I think they mean that people bang on about how great it is for children to walk to school but it's rarely easy, practical or safe! Not a slight on you at all.

Do you know what the section of A road for school 1 is like at the times you'd be crossing? Is it jammed up or at full flow? What's the speed limit? Is there any chance of meeting other parents at a set time and all crossing together?

I understand your want to walk. I hate driving especially in the school rush.

I would put your catchment school at third place and school 1 in second place.

Do not choose a school where you will need to drive. Kids should be walking to and from school.

I really love walking to school. I wfh in a crazy busy role where it’s not easy to just “go out for a walk” at lunch or any other time do the school walks are really important to me.

When people talk about how kids dont walk to school these days, mums drive and clog up the roads these days, (usually in the Guardian) and of course have no comprehension that there are schools whose routes will mean busy A road crossings, no pavement sometimes, no lighting sometimes and it can be dangerous, so your dilemma is that of many parents trying to work out how to safely physically get your kids to school.

And it annoys me that some people dont understand the difficulties sometimes

And thats without some parents who have to go onto work straight after school drop off so wont have the scope to walk to school, walk back, so of course they have to drive if their school isnt within safe walking distance.

You said it better than me!!

@bellac11 and @DoctorMartin thank for for explaining that. I understand now. :)

The A-road is 40 mph with full flowing traffic at peak times. It’s very difficult to cross even at quiet times. Although, the speed limit is just a target here. I’ve been along that road doing 40 and cars over take doing 50, some more. It’s not a good road to cross. (It’s also a take your life into your hands to try and get out of the drive. I usually turn the other direction to try and get out (usually with a 5 minute wait for a gap) and go 2 miles out of my way rather than try and cross the traffic). I know people who’ve admitted to doing 60+ on that road.
In all honestly. Driving to any of these schools, including the catchment one (yes, I’ve considered it), would add 2 miles to the journey just to get off the drive and be able to drive there (so basically the completely wrong direction and would take longer than walking). Yes, it’s complete madness.

For those who are interested in other options we haven’t explored.
We have no other options.
Unless we want to drive 10 miles north to the next town or choose one of the 2 small CofE village primaries both with PAN 10 on the way to the next town.
Alternatively we can drive 8 miles south to the town there but their schools are full because they got rid of the village primary schools near that town. (Again, the crossing the traffic in the car problem so best avoided).
Or we can go really out of the way to a village primary with a PAN 8 and only ever takes 4/5 but it’s 15 miles away in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

You need to put your catchment down to make sure you have a place somewhere in case it’s one of those high birth rate lots of siblings years. As you don’t seem to like it put it as 3.

School 1 as 2nd because the walk is shorter. And possibly the best of the three walks you’ve mentioned.

How about buying a big yellow jacket and a lollipop stick and all the parents can gather in the same place at the same time and you can make your own lollipop crossing?

How about buying a big yellow jacket and a lollipop stick and all the parents can gather in the same place at the same time and you can make your own lollipop crossing?
This made me laugh so much. Love it.

Thanks everyone. We’ve decided we’re going with our original first preference, school 1 and catchment.

All the advice made sense and helped us make a decision. Thank you all for your help.