Teenage children - is it important to buy house near school

[Nicky2021]

Hey!
I recently left my husband and so am looking to buy a house. How important is it to buy close to the kids school, in terms of them being close to friends, specifically for my eldest who is in high school. Obviously this restricts the houses available to me so wondering what your thoughts are?
TIA

I don't think it matters too much as long as you're in the catchment area; it's quite likely that their friends don't live near the school either. Being on/near a bus route is probably a good idea though.

I'd say it's pretty important. Friendships are generally very important to teens. We live 2 minutes from ds's high school, 5 minutes from his old primary as do many of his friends. They go out together all the time to play footie, ride bikes etc. And pre pandemic they'd all go up to the local pool or cinema together. Means he's never far from home and I don't have to give lifts all over the place.
Why don't you ask your kids how they feel about it? They might be fine with it, I know mine wouldn't though.

Depends where you are - eg, if London it matters a little less as there's lots of public transport. If somewhere smaller where people are very reliant on cars, it's a significant difference.

I went to a school that had wide catchment and most of my best friends lived in a different area two bus rides away, but as I was in London that wasn't hard to do and it wasn't a problem.

I agree it's area dependent.

We lived within walking distance for high school years, it allowed our kids to have real independence in their teenage years - they could come home from school as and when and socialise. Was useful for clubs, sports, revision sessions etc.

Lots of their friends lived locally too. No one uses the bus or train to get to school here so that wasn't a consideration.

Most teenagers have some journey to school, a bus usually; mine did and so did I.

I think it's important to try and live near the school when dc are in primary school but less important at secondary school when dc are more independent.

My dd chose a secondary school in the next town. Plenty of children from our town also went so there were loads of them on the buses. The new friends that she made were from the town where we live, the town where the school was and a number of surrounding villages.

I think its really important . I have 16yr olds - gradually staying out later, going to concerts etc. Vast majority of their friends are local, so they all walk back together, travel in and out of city together (we're in Greater Manchester so on a tram line). A few friends live some distance from school - their parents either have to give them lifts everywhere and collect again , or if its a trip into the city etc and the parent doesn't want to collect / can't collect, the children don't go (just not quite old enough to be travelling by tram on their own late at night). If you're a single parent, I imagine you end up with most of the taxi-ing anyway so I'd really try to get near to school / local friends.

My eldest is at the school I went to. I hated being 3 miles from school, my DC have less than 0.5 mile walk

As long as you are in the catchment it would be fine. Teenagers can take to foot, bike and bus to see their friends outside school if they want to.

I lived nowhere near my secondary school friends but it was a faith school and kids came from all over the city. There was a good public transport network though so we could all get around on the bus/train to see each other without relying on parents.

We chose a house near DCs’ schools. I could see the playground of DC2’s kindergarten from my balcony, the primary was 5 minutes’ walk away and the high school 10mins in the other direction.
Quite frankly it was more use to me, not needing to drive them to school, but their days were certainly shorter than kids who had to take the bus.
Maybe coming home to get changed for private afternoon activities instead of taking everything in the morning was an advantage but their friends came from far and near.

Older DC’s meetups were often in town not school, and having a bike meant they were pretty independent. I just told them a time to be back and to keep their mobile switched on.
But we did live in a small town with loads of cycle paths.

Three miles isn't very far. I never worked out the mileage for mine from home to school but they were on a bus route, it didn't take long*. When I was at school I also could take the 'bus to and from but it was within (a fairly long), walking distance and in good weather it was nice to walk.

*I just checked, it was three miles exactly.

I think its very important - we moved from London where 45 minute commute each day to 5-10 min walk to school and makes a huge difference. Kids get 70 mins of their day back they can spend with friends or at a club or on homework, they can see friends who also live walking distance to school by walking. They can go to evening clubs at the school - air cadets, youth club etc and walk there and back. Good as a parent too as no driving them around needed and very safe walk. Plus when you are very close you are certain can get in (assuming in catchment). Great when it snows etc as well as can still get in.

We moved specifically to get into a catchment for a secondary school. Ds1 didn't know anyone there but made friends very quickly who all seemed to live in the opposite direction

So we are just over a mile away in one direction, they are just under 2 mile in the other direction making them 3 miles apart. Some of them get the bus rather than walk the 30 plus minutes home. They communicated like normal teens via Discord and gaming together. None of them are the hang around on parks type of kids preferring to stay inside with food and computers.

Ds2 had the same, one friend lives 30 seconds walk from school but he will walk with Ds2 and a couple of other friends to where they all separate in different directions and he just turns around.

I would say within walking distance is the best but bus route if you have to. It is completely normal for children to walk for over 30 minutes to get to school.