How long is too long for school run

[Oneofthosedayzz]

We live in Wimbledon. My husband and I can’t agree on a school to send my daughter.

so, we have a girl ( 3 years) and a boy (11 month). Public transport is quite useless around where we live. We got offer from two good schools:

1. one is co-ed, the other is girls only
2. both are good schools, both are till 11. but we believe the girls only would be better for our daughter
3. both offer breakfast club and wrap around till 6pm
4. we plan to send our son to a day nursery when he’s 1.5 years old, and try to see if he can get into Kings through 7+, so likely they will go to different schools.
5. we both work full time, at the moment, mostly from home but that could change as we change job in the future.

we have a tough time deciding between donhead and holy cross. The main issue we can’t agree on is school run. My husband is feeling optimistic and I’m not. I think the girl only school is too far for us, according to Google, it’s between 12 to 20 minutes one way. And if ever, we want to get a nanny to help us, we need someone who can drive.

how long is too long for school runs? Anyone has experience doing school runs of similar distance , say 20 minutes one way due to traffic, how is your experience? Would you recommend against it?

Surely you'd be nowhere near the catchment if it was an hour's drive away? It would have to be very Uber subscribed or selective to get in

20 min would be fine if they were at the same school...for two different school runs it's a nightmare...ask me how I know. Realistically both schools will start at roughly the same time and you can't be in two places at once so you'll both need to take one each. It's a nightmare if one parent goes out of town. Choose the coed school OP. You'll get hundreds of hours of your life back

We walk twenty minutes to school, it's fine but it would be ridiculous for me to walk twenty minutes there, twenty back just to get into my car and drive back that way to work. Or should people have to work within walking distance too?

The other day my pick up looked like this:
Drive 20 min to school 1. Park/walk up/collect is 10 min. 5 min to chat to another mum/schedule play date. 5 min to get back in car. 15 min to drive to school 2. 10 min to park etc. Wait 15 min for coach to arrive from away match. 10 min for kids to collect stuff from school after coach arrives. 20 min to drive back home. Door to door I was 1hr 50 minutes...that 20 minutes to school is totally misleading!

maybe it was not very clear in my OP, they are private schools. we are thinking to send our daughter to donhead (8-12 min drive),or holy cross (12-20 min drive). Our son most likely we will send him to squirrel or rowens to prepare for 7+. Knowing they will go to different schools, is 20 minutes for one of them too long? The positive thing I guess is squirrel and rowens will be both on the way (slight detour). So to drop them both off back and forth would easily be 1 hour in the morning I’d imagine 😮‍💨😮‍💨 one more issue is, since my son is younger, in the early years, school/daycare hours in the morning will be later than our daughter. But his school is nearer to us. So he will have to sit in the car while I drop my daughter?!

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare school run! Is it really 20 mins in rush hour? I would take into account that parking will also be nightmare, as I assume many other parents will be driving to the school.

Ours is a 40 min drive each way (also prep so actually the catchment is much wider and so no issue over friendship groups) - it's fine as my husband just does it on the way to and from work. It's only really a pain for things like assemblies or if they forget something and you have to make a special journey. But also both kids at same school makes it easier!

It all depends on where you live. Whilst 20-30 mins might be viewed as acceptable in London , 1 hour plus might be viewed as acceptable in say the Scottish Highlands or the Welsh Brecons.

Some private schools local to me if b/g control their drop off / pick up times as know their other sex siblings are at other school

Not sure if yours is the same

But yes if a mixed school they both can go to it's better

OP this is a completely normal commute for independent schools in Wimbledon. Even if you live in Wimbledon and you send your son to Squirrels/Rowans or King's it will take a similar time with the traffic on the Broadway and the Ridgway. Unless you are close enough to walk or cycle.

Holycross will have many children who live in Wimbledon. It is so close, yet the time taken is just the nature of London traffic.

If you particularly want to send her to an all girls school on the Wimbledon side of the A3, why not consider The Study or Wimbledon High. But from my perspective, the commute to Holycross is totally normal for SW London private schools.

Holy Cross has quite a few girls commuting from Wimbledon, also introduced a school bus a while ago. Their school run isn't so bad as cars just go in and drive out around the school dropping kids off or picking them up. Probably the most efficient system anyone might have ever seen. Going up and down Coombe hill will be a nightmare around that time though. Overall it's a nice school.
That said, with a DS and a DD I would have looked for WHS/Study or even further to PHS with Squirrels depending on the location.

Holy cross have a school bus that goes through Wimbledon. I believe they are also introducing an afternoon bus too so you would never have to do the school run! The study and WHS are also lovely schools though and go through to 18 if you wanted.