How far do you travel for private prep?

[Account18]

Interested in getting general views from this community

1. How far do you travel for private prep school (age 3/4-11)?
2. What time to you leave in the morning?
3. What method of transport to you use? Car, walk, train?
4. What is the typical travel time radius in your private prep?

For us, it seems like a 15 min one way drive (25 mins in morning traffic) for a great school in the area. Of course a short walk would be ideal, but the school was so good which I think is of more importance. It seems like this travel time radius is pretty common for this particular school in Greater London.

About half an hour each way for our youngest even though our other two board at the school so we are still making the journey! Decisions about education should be about what’s best for the child. It’s the best school in the region and worth all the time and all the pretty pennies it costs.

Around 25 min drive to get to school. Coming back after morning drop off it takes 40 mins as traffic has built up. We leave between 7.35am and 7.50am.

We had offers from prep schools even closer but this one was our favourite and felt right.

DS2’s nursery is close to our home and so usually it’s one parent takes one child, but if one of us are away or need to be in the office early then he has to come with us to school and then all the way back to nursery as nursery doesn’t open in time, which isn’t that often, but I do feel bad about that.

40mins door to door on public transport - we found this more reliable and less stressful than driving. We leave around 7:40am. Most kids at school live near the area though so it makes play dates a bit challenging. We are like the pp- we loved our school despite having offers from closer ones

We drive 10-15 minutes each way (depends on traffic), that’s fairly average - our school is on the edge of a city but close to the routes into the city from the countryside so we have kids that live round the corner (2 minutes walk) and kids that live in the middle of nowhere (30 minutes drive). I think the average is around a 15 minute drive.

Why do your other 2 board if you travel there each day?

Because they want to board so I am not restricting their education because of the youngest

20 minutes to one and 15 to the other. It’s an hour round trip in the morning to drop all the kids.

Ours would be similar on public transport - less stressful than driving in typically slow traffic, but the school does have good parking compared to most others. Is it 40 there and another 40 back

Sounds similar, hoping to leave around 8 though!
What do you do in the daily car journeys (with/without the kids)

With DC in the car, we just chit chat, play things like eye spy or practice phonics, etc.

When it’s just me, enjoy the freedom of listening to what I want to listen and however loud I want without any interruptions!

20-25 minutes. We tend to leave just after 7am as the kids choose to go to breakfast club because they get full cooked breakfast/waffles/smoothies etc rather than toast and cereal at home! Usually pick up at 5.15pm as that’s when after school activities finish. Couple of days a week we pick up at end of school (4.05) and occasionally they stay for tea and we pick up at 6pm. Kids listen to audiobooks in the car.

30 minutes by car.
I teach at the school, so DD comes with me, leave home 7. 15 am.

We’ll be doing 20 mins each way in the car next year, maybe a little bit longer depending on traffic. Everybody I know who’s DC go there will be doing about the same, if not longer

30 mins in car, but it’s a through school. The previous prep was a 5 minute drive. Leave at 7:45am

DC1 might get the bus occasionally when starts senior school.

1. 5 mins walk, about 300 yards. We used to live 25 mins away by tube, but we found it was worth it for our quality of life to move closer, especially as we have 2 dcs so 11 years of primary school runs (and assemblies/concerts/parent evenings).

1. 8.15am for 8.30am start.

1. Walk.

1. About 30 mins, mostly by public transport. School is 5 mins walk from a London zone 2 tube.

15 minute drive. It's been ok tbh, we leave at 7.50

Used to go to the local school a five minute walk away and do really miss it!

It's a 30 minute walk or 15/20 minutes on the tube or 20/30 minutes on the bus (or 10 minute drive, but we very rarely drive).

It's not the very best prep in the area though, convenience of commute was factored in.

Sounds great, and probably quite similar at that time - do you do that there and back

We had to drive for that amount to get a state primary, despite having a closer one just out of our catchment but a new development pushed us out of the boundary. You do get used to the car journey - we used to use the time to catch up which is actually really nice once they start school as they seem to close off to some extent.

We have done 45 minutes each way for a day school, but we’re now at a boarding prep so 90 minutes each way but not daily (I typically drive through twice a week but sometimes more).

Yes there and back, it's quite fun really listening to music together and having a chat. I did prefer the walk and think it's good for kids to walk/cycle to school but mine are so much happier at their independent school.

We are 3 minutes walk away but chose the house due to the school.

we have friends who travel over 50 mins.

45 minutes is a considerable time - how did you find it
Were there many others in your school doing the same

Sounds like a nice range of options - do you do the return journey also
We have similar options but probably double all the times you quoted

Yep, the return journey also. So usually about 45 mins or so from leaving the house to getting back. We tend to take the tube most frequently. If we're lucky with tubes then less, unlucky then it takes longer.