London Commute on Tube/DLR/Overground/Bus

[EuropeanMongrel]

I understand that it is very common for Secondary School children in London to travel via public transport, sometimes with fairly long commutes.
With our child starting reception this year, I get the impression that for primary school, most London families opt for a very local school.

We live in Tower Hamlets and were given an offer to a school that is South of the river (not our first choice but a seemingly good school nevertheless).
We are now hesitating between:

• staying put - our door-to-door commute would be significant (40 mins with a fair bit of walking and one stop on the Jubilee). This sounds manageable for no more than a month or two so not really an option
• moving closer to the school - very few places that are 10-15 mins walking distance
• finding a home very close to an Overground or DLR Station - although I enjoy walking, my 4-year old is definitely not as keen so reducing walking time and replacing with a short train journey on DLR/Overground which are (in my opinion) far less stressful seems feasible. It looks like there could be options involving a 20-min commute door-to-door

How common is it for primary school children to commute, with a parent, to school via public transport? What is usually manageable? How much worse is it compared to a commute involving a short walk?

Despite having lived in London for 20 years, you may gather I am not much of a fan of commuting via public transport so just want to make sure I'm not overestimating the effort/stress of something that many parents/children in London deal with.

As a child I briefly did long commutes when we moved during the school year, and even only doing a couple of days crossing the thames before changing to a new school, they are traumatic memories for me.

DS has never been more than 15 minutes walking distance through nursery, pre-prep and prep. It gives both free time and keeps him within close proximity of the school circle.

Friends we have who do commute consistently complain.

We get the bus to school and live in London, it wasn’t our nearest one so easier / quicker to get the bus. Primary.

Everybody I know in south london at a state primary lives within 15 mins walk of the school. At nursery, we did used to hop on the train for one stop, but we could also have walked it in 20mins (it was 3mins on the train, so we didn’t have to bother taking the pushchair).

At secondary school, they do often get either a bus or a train, but even so, commute is usually less than 30mins for most people.

I’m a bit confused how you’ve ended up with a place miles away from your home in a school out of borough that you presumably didn’t choose. I’d put yourself in the waiting list for a closer school, or move closer, in your situation. There must be houses or flats within a 20min walk. Most children seem to cycle or scooter to school, which should make a mile or so manageable.

Did you apply to your nearest schools? If you did and the LA has offered a place over two miles away they will probably have to pay your travel costs. 40 minutes is probably longer than most for a reception place at a state school.

I live in tower hamlets and there are loads of parents with kids on the bus and dlr in the morning.
So much housing has gone up without new schools (the only school by us is private).

I don't have kids though so don't know how many in each class are coming in on public transport.

We applied mainly for faith schools so it is on that criteria that we obtained the place (not our first choice). The good non-faith schools in our area are heavily oversubscribed.
Any commute we were considering would be no more than 5 mins but there is of course the walking to/from stations that we were trying to factor in.

Being 15 min walking distance compared to 5 mins or so from a station on either end still seems better but by how much, I don't know.

Thanks. I also see a number of parents on DLR/Overground but am always wondering how far they travel and for what reason (did they move since the child started school?). None of my friends or colleagues do this.

Primary School standards in TH seem to have really improved in the last decade or so. There seems to be a lot more demand for good schools.

Worth going on the waiting list for your higher preferences if you haven’t already.

This is not sustainable for primary school unless the school has a minibus service which is extremely unlikely. Unless your child goes to the more elite privates for primary eg St Paul's, City etc than its very unusual to have such a long commute. How will you be able to work? What happens when the child is sick, which happens a lot in the early years?
However, if you applied, you must've factored this all in?
I'd personally stick them on as many local waiting lists as possible and hope and pray.

@EuropeanMongrel can you explain more about the schools you did apply for? Did you apply for any which are close and non-faith? It seems strange you’ve ended up so far away. In your shoes I would go on the waiting list for all schools within walking distance

We've been lucky. DD's primary was a 15 minute walk and her secondary is about a 30 minute walk for her. She could take the bus) and many do) but she prefers to walk. However popular schools with big catchments have kids coming in from all over. I wouldn't like to have put DD on a bug commute before & after school, it's tiring.

I commute on public transport with my nursery-aged son (who starts reception in September). It’s two bus rides, plus an 10-12 min walk at each end, and some waiting around in the middle - around 45-50 mins each way. I wouldn’t recommend it! Winter was utterly miserable. We only did it because we moved neighbourhoods and didn’t want to put our DS through leaving his nursery and friends and joining a new one just 8 months before starting school. But I will be very relieved when we can stop doing it and have a 15-minute walk (or 5 minute bike ride) to school instead.

Like others I would suggest getting on every waiting list you can for schools with more realistic commute times. 4 year olds can’t handle multi-stage journeys twice a day without getting exhausted and tantrumy. Your third option (the 20 minute commute) might be do-able if local schools via waiting lists aren’t possible, but it would still have to be a very simple commute with minimal walking. Good luck figuring it out.

I can't see the problem. Our 'commute' for primary was a 40 min walk each way and it was fine.

A side issue later on will be that all playdates etc generally tend to be within that 15 min radius of school. So where you are doing 40 mins to get to a playdate/party that’s more travel time. Your child is more likely to have local friends if you choose the school closest to your house.

It’s 40mins including a tube ride - so if the tube is delayed, or there is a strike, or anything else, they can’t get to school… Rush hour on the Jubilee Line is also not something I would particularly want to subject a four year old to every morning and evening. Plus none of their friends will live nearby, which is a big thing when you are in Primary - DS sees all of his friends in the local park over summer, bumps into people he knows in the shop and at swimming, etc.

I’d be ok with 40mins walking (at four year old speed, that is probably only 1.5km). You have the option of the bus, driving or cycling if you are running late, or your child is ill. I would not be ok with a 40min tube ride.

That happens automatically in Tower Hamlets (and has been confirmed).
The school we have obtained is our 3rd choice.
In Tower Hamlets, at least in our area, many of the non-faith schools with good ratings have tiny catchment areas and are heavily, heavily oversubscribed. Probably expected when TH receives the most funding per head and has the highest-rated school in the UK.
We had opted for a good faith school (that we knew we had a good chance of getting) in Southwark/Lewisham over nearby non-faith schools and now, the situation is what it is. We had prepared ourselves to move if we got this school. We are just reevaluating where (geographically close in terms of walking distance or close to a station and then 1-2 stops away).

We are keeping an eye on the waiting list of our 1st and 2nd choices especially as the deadline is next week (2nd May) so nothing is fixed just yet.

To be specific, we are taking about a one-stop Tube journey on Jubilee or a two- or three-stop journey on Overground to get to Canada Water.

DD1 used to commute to prep school when she first started in reception. It's fairly common in her school and in other private primaries. It was 22 mins door to door, on a single line - but we'd leave about 40 mins ahead just to allow for delays, forgetting something etc (we'd almost always arrive early and the school allows us to enter the playground so she saw it as a chance for extra playtime - I think most primaries don't let you enter the site or play though so you'd just be hanging around on the street).

At pick up time I'd leave about 35 mins ahead and hang around, and then getting home took longer than 22 mins thanks to a quick play in the school playground, dawdling, stopping for snacks etc. So it did take up a fair chunk of my day despite the short commute.

We moved house after one term and now have a 5 min walk. There was a real difference in DD1's energy levels once she stopped commuting. For us it was the Northern line, which is horribly loud and even though we travelled at less busy times and always got a seat, I think it was quite stressful being around people rushing about. Other families seem to be happy with their commute and don't seem interested in moving, so it depends a bit on the child. For us a walking journey to school has been ideal, and if you're opting for the school and plan to stay there then I'd say it's worth waiting for the right property to come up within walking distance - one will come up eventually. Although if you're lukewarm about the school and might change if a waiting list place came up elsewhere, then I'd wait until you've made your final choice of school.

No, you're not overestimating the stress of commuting to primary school. The time really stacks up, plus of course cost, strikes, delays, exposure to air pollution if walking along busy roads at peak times.... the list of negatives is endless.

The biggest issue though is, as others have said, that other kids will live close and so will see each other at the park, easy playdates, playing on the green after school.... You'll find yourself needing to make the trip to that area for birthday parties, school concerts, parents evenings, school fairs etc. It becomes a gigantic arse ache. I speak from experience. Try for your local schools if you can.

I really really would not want to do the Jubilee line toward central London during morning rush hour

I live in Lewisham, public transport generally is not that reliable these days due to strikes and breakdowns and crazy road traffic. I'd try to keep the commute short.

A child's friends who live 40 mins away are also far less likely to want to travel to yours for a playdate/parties.

@EuropeanMongrel you should also be able to go on the waiting list for any other closer schools you’d be happy with even if you didn’t apply to them initially.

sounds like a total nightmare - you will be travelling in the rush hour, wont you. I wouldn't do it at all at primary.

As this is Tower Hamlets, we are already on the waiting list of our preferred schools. We will see if we can be on the waiting list of some other schools.

I should maybe have made it clear that we are not looking to stay in our current place so the challenge is that, as things stand, we have to plan according to the offer that has been confirmed while keeping other options open (waiting lists).

The school he has been offered a place at seems very good in terms of results, ratings, feedback. Certainly better than any of our other choices so it is not some kind of "mistake" that he have ended up with the school. Objectively it is a better school than any of the higher choices but of course it is a question of whether the school works for us and our child.

The only consideration was moving closer to whichever school our child had obtained a place at. We have had a bit of a rethink because of the challenge of finding a place near this school.

We may opt to move but staying in the current area if we somehow get a place at a local school due to availability/affordability of suitable homes.

The challenge is that locally we either have highly-rated oversubscribed schools (like our first 2 choices) or very average or problem schools. We are 0.1 Mile away from our first choice which kind of reflects the challenge.

We might indeed need to reevaluate our options and look at the feasibility of a local TH school that might not have as good a reputation as the school our child has an offer at but is in area where we can eventually move to.

For the time being we are still, in parallel, looking at where to move to, which would be convenient for the current Southwark school.

Are you able to give an update? Interested as I’m a T.H resident struggling with school applications for next year