Hi everyone,
Dd started reception last month. The school we chose was where both me and my husband attended as children and acts in favour of getting in to one of the top state schools. This school is also a faith school and as such has a wider catchment than all of the other schools in our area and as we plan on moving in the next couple of years felt this was a positive.
The main issue is it's about 2.5 miles away, and the stress of the school run is taking its toll. The traffic, finding somewhere to park, SUV's, getting all the kids in the car; including my terrible's two's 2 year old, and my 5 week old baby along with the buggies is making me think it's too much.
When we applied I didn't know I was pregnant and whilst I was of course aware of the rush hour traffic and skinny residential road I honestly thought I would get used to it. I also thought I could walk it most days but with the awful weather we've had and a newborn strapped to me we've had to be reliant on the car much more than I would like. Public transport is extremely unreliable and the couple of times I've tried it we've been late, plus we still have to walk a good 20 minutes from the bus stop and cross a busy road.
The school I'm thinking of moving dd to is about a five minute walk away and so I would have a lot less stress. If we move however, the secondary school (which is also very good) that most move on to have a really strict catchment area of about 0.5 miles so I hated the idea I would be separating her from all her friends.
My biggest fear is the fact that my daughter is quite shy/anxious and is beginning to settle in and make friends and I'd hate to undo all of that by sending her to a new school to do it all again. And what if she hates it? I'd much rather struggle on than cause her unnecessary anguish. Also if we move we will have the same problem, but the parking and traffic is much less stressful.
Apologies for the waffle, I'm sure my post was much longer than it needed to be!
TLDR: I hate the school run, should we change schools?
TIA