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.