Secondary school commute? Sensible or not?

[dddddiva]

Hi,

My daughter has received an offer from City of London School for Girls for 11+ entry. We live about a 10–15 minute drive from Woolwich Arsenal. She could take the Elizabeth line to Farringdon station (took around 15 mins) and then walk to the school (7mins walk).

Do you think this would be a tiring commute for secondary school? In the first years I can drive her to Woolwich Arsenal, and later she could also take a bus there independently or overground train (5mins). Would this be considered a reasonable daily journey?

I work in a grammar school in one of the home counties. We have students traveling from London having to change public transport multiple times eb route. Personally I think that's wrong on the child as the commute is over an hour each way. What you've described is perfectly fine! It will be good for her to gain experience of independent travel that children who get driven to their local schools miss out on. I think it's good that you are mindful of this. You also need to be mindful of is what happens if she is ill in school and needs to be picked up. If you are not available, make sure you put down a contact that can collect her.
Best of luck to her!

That’s a fairly easy commute. One of my best friends had up to an hour with 1-2 buses but her dad dropped her in in the mornings (on his way to work).

We've recently changed from at 10 min commute for my son to a 35 min, plus his new school has an hour longer day. He's actually less tired because he loves school, it's more engaging, more fun, he likes the kids more. Ultimately if she really likes the school I'd go for it. We are looking at up to an hour for secondary because we've realised his happiness is way way more important than commute time. Being unhappy or feeling somewhere isn't quite right for you is way more draining than 15 mins on a train and a short walk.

Mine have a 1 hr 15 min bus journey to their independent secondary, with a 10 min walk to the bus stop. Yours sounds fine.

My kids catch a bus which is about a 15minute ride sometimes less depending on traffic and a 5 minute walk to their school

Sounds fine. Well done DD!
She will probably make some friends she can share the journey with when the time comes.

I went to the same school many years ago and lived in North London. I walked 10 minutes to the local station which was on the Northern Line, the journey took 45 minutes to Moorgate and then walked to school along the podium which took 15 mins. It really was ok. I wouldn’t worry

It’s fine - my sons have a 45 min commute as do most of their friends going to other schools (one has an hour and a half commute!)

Try the commute with her now at the right time in the morning and see how she feels! My child has to take a crowded train and is fine with it, but everyone’s different.

It’s barely a commute! Most kids have much longer commutes, our closest secondary would be 30 minutes, the one my older son goes to is over 1 hour (walk/train/bus), which is a bit long.

CLSG is a fantastic school and she is lucky to have been offered a place there. The journey from Woolwich on the Elizabeth line is fine, but don't get off at Farringdon. Sit at the font of the train and get off at Liverpool Street but leave through the Moorgate exit. You pop up just a 5 minute walk from the entrance to CLSG

It's fine. Just do it with her a few times, show her how to use Google maps to look up next bus or train in case she misses one.
I used to do bus, train and bus for over an hour at that age.

Sounds lovely. My son has a 15 min walk to catch a bus at 7.37am to get to school for 8.20!

I think it's fine, though it's not really the length of time for each section that matters. You have to take into account the frequency of service, time between journey legs, likelihood of disruptions, overcrowding which can be bad enough to prevent you boarding, and what alternative routes exist. The Elizabeth line is great, though it suffers from quite a lot of disuptions. She will be quite far from other friends who may be travelling from the other side of London (which is true for all pupils there, but you get clusters in areas like Islington, Highgate etc which you might not have in Woolwich).

My dd has at least 6 alternative routes using bus and Overground if necessary (and one day it will be necessary, at some point over the 8 years she will be there). We opted for schools with a simple one-leg route (tube only or bus only) for the main daily journey, because more legs mean more chance of delays, and it could be cycled in under 30 mins if needed (total tube strike etc). But we live quite centrally so we have a wide range of schools even with that limitation.

My daughter was offered a terrible out of catchment school on the other side of our city. It would have taken 2 hours, leaving at 6.30 am to get there on buses. The council deemed this reasonable. She goes to a boarding school in another city instead.

It’ll be fine - you can take her some of the way sometimes and other times she can be independent and get her self there it sounds like. I have to drive my boys to their small selective school as we live rurally and there is no public transport. I used to drive one to that school and the other to a different prep, now they are both at the same school and it seems relatively so much easier. We still have different pick up times most days due to co-curricular an and sports training / matches. But at least the drop off is the same every morning!

Your daughter may find there’s another girl doing a similar route that she can buddy up with - we lift share with another family (boys in different years to mine, but they are all friendly enough across the year groups at their school).

I live I rural Lincolnshire and my 11yo started at the 'local' Grammar school last September. She's out of the house from 7.10am to 5.00pm. It's a 10min drive to the next village for her to catch the school bus - which takes an hour.

We considered moving closer to school to cut the commute for her, but she loves the bus journey with all her mates, so we're staying put!

I think kids are sometimes more adaptable and resilient than we give them credit for - sure your daughter will be fine!

I left home at 7am for an 8 40 school start . Unless you live next to the school how bloody long do you expect it to take ?

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I wouldn’t be worried about the journey being tiring, I’d be more worried about an 11 year old doing that journey on their own. My kids are still really young, so I don’t know how I would feel once they got to that age, but it seems young to be travelling around a city alone 🤷‍♀️

My kids had to walk 40 minutes to their state secondary and it was fine. I did drive them if it was raining and I was home (or otherwise gave them bus money).

What is her current travel time to school? This seems incredibly short as a commute - I know a few secondary kids who have very early starts leaving 6:30 am to travel to school. Going at 8 is hardly a the start of a tiring day? Really confused by this question.

Assume this is rage bait! My children walk 30 mins each way to their secondary school in all weathers. Set off at 7:45, get home at 15:30

The vast majority of year 7s make their own way to secondary school, including those who live in cities.

Seems fine

I went to City (albeit a while ago, I'm in my 30s now!) and had a very similar sounding commute (from a different bit of London). The commute was never an issue at all, in fact I liked it because I spent the journey chatting to friends who travelled on the same tube line. It was actually a good opportunity to make friends with girls in other years who had similar journeys who I probably would never have chatted to otherwise. (I also loved the school, had a great experience there. I expect a few things have changed since then though!).