Children at different school

[TheMummyJade]

Hi mumsnetters! Parents with children who attend different schools... what do you think of it? My two oldest boys currently attend a single sex day school in Manchester, and with a baby girl on the way we know she'll have to attend a different school to the boys. We like the school our boys are at now but have considered moving them to a co-ed school as they transition into senior school, as that will be about the time their younger siblings are beginning junior school.

Currently the drive to the boys's school is 30-50 minutes (traffic dependent), and driving to the closest girls' school could take an extra 10-15 minutes. The closest co-ed grammar school to us is about 35 minutes drive (without considering traffic). I am completely aware that I am thinking about this very far in advance, but I just want everyone's opinions on what the pros and cons of having children at different schools are.

Thanks everyone :)

I think it depends totally on the practicalities. I had two at different schools for a long time and it was fine because the hours of the two schools were different enough that drop off and pick up worked (though was occasinally a bit hairy for my liking!).

If your boys are really happy at their current school it would be a shame to move them and always a risk you'd move them to an unknown quantity that turned out to be less good, but if it's going to make life really stressful every morning, that might be the catalyst I would need to move (or you might just find it's impossible).

I think I would look into whether each school has buses that could be used, what their hours are etc and then think about it from there.

Would this be an issue for senior school as mostly they would get themselves there independently wouldn't they? Unless you're in the absolute back end of nowhere and there's no decent public transport links of course. So if travelling independently best school for the child rather than keeping them in the same school probably, eg, you may have one or two academic that could be grammar material and one or two not in which case choose on this basis.