Secondary choice - concerned about long-ish commute and need advice.

[cingolimama]

Deciding between two state schools. The one I (and DD) prefer is an outstanding state CofE school, and I really feel it's the right place for her, for lots of reasons: single sex (not a huge issue for me, but still a preference), very high standards of achievement for a comp and great academic programme, terrific opportunities for music, art and drama, which DD loves. My one reservation about the school is the commute to central London, which would be about 45minutes. That's a huge chunk out of her day - where would she fit in homework, music practice, relaxing, spending time with friends and family etc?

The alternative is a good (it's actually very good, but not outstanding) school around the corner. Part of me (selfishly?) thinks I'd see more of her if she went to that school, and she wouldn't have the stress of a commute.

Any direct experiences and/or thoughts from parents would be SO appreciated. Am I over-thinking this?

Thanks to all who have responded - I really appreciate it.

To those who ask how can I be in catchment for a school 45 mintues away..well, I'm not in catchment but would be going for a music place (they reserve a number of places for talented musicians) or a church place. Of course, neither are guaranteed, but we have a good chance. As many of you know, I have to put our 1st choice on CPF, which is why I'm struggling.

The local school is a slam-dunk, admissions criteria wise (trust me, I'm sure on this).

The journey would be either two buses, or one bus and a ten minute walk.

45 minutes is not u usual for senior school. One bus and a ten minute walk doesn't sound too bad. Do other children go to this school from your area. If so, the. She will have someone to travel with. I would be less kenpen if she was the only girl travelling on this route.

My eldest has a 30 minute train journey, and then a 8 minute walk. My youngest goes to a school 5 miles away, but has to catch two buses for that journy. Sometimes it's not the distance that matters, but the ease of travelling.

Terrible, isn't it, that so-called state comprehensive schools can cherry pick their pupils like this?

And then everyone drones on and one about how fabulous their results are for a state school darling.

Dd ended up commuting 40 minutes each day as she failed to get into her nearest secondary, an outstanding CofE secondary single school in Central London with an appalling reputation for preferring girls from leafy suburbs. She hated being on crowded tubes and changed school at sixth form. Really unless you don't have other options, go local. It is not worth so much time out of your teenage years.

Agree river. The bus journey is apparently the most enjoyable part of the school day for our DCs. Most of their friends catch the same bus, so it's a 50 minute giggle and gossip fest' twice a day.

I meant single sex...oddly her results were just as good as if she had gone there. Indeed I am pretty sure they would have taken her for sixth form, but obviously she was not prepared to consider them.

DC walk 10 minutes from our house & a 25-30 minute bus ride. That's nothing. They have bestie friends on the bus so not dead time at all.

Minty, what "cherry-picking"?

Minty, I can't speak for all schools you have an issue with, but this particular school bands all their applicants into four ability bands, and distribute their allocations equally 25% per band (and yes, they do this with the church applicants as well). So yeah, comprehensive.

Reserving a number of places for talented musicians, for example. That is cherry picking. There are a miniscule number of talented musicians from financially or socially deprived backgrounds, I would wager.

My DC choose a local average school 5 minutes walk away over a 45 minute commute to a decent grammar where the all had places.

It was so relaxing not having to worry about catching buses or driving and it meant they had lots of local friends. My DC were all self motivated and hard working so felt they could do ok at the local school.

There were pros and cons but overall they and we were very happy with the decision.

1hr30 mins worth of commuting translates to over 2000 hours over a secondary school education. That's about 59 work weeks.

90 mins x 195 (days a year spent at school) x 7 (years of secondary school) divide by 60 = 2,047.5 hours on a bus

2,047.5 divide by 36 (working week) = 56 .875 work weeks

My dd has a good friend at her local state comp. This girl could have gone to the place that I think you are alluding to op (anyway it is an extremely well known girls C of E school in central London) but her mum very sensibly decided it was better for her dd to stay local. She has done so and is soaring away academically at the local comp and can see her friends whenever she likes at the weekend or after school without elaborate plans to taxi her around.

Minty would it be okay if the musician was from a financially deprived household? The school has a significantly higher than national average FSM takeup, so make of that what you will.

Does it have a higher than local average fsm take up?

Press, thanks for the maths. Scary, but then again, you could multiply those numbers about any activity that you do. It's what you do on the commute - even if it's stare out the window and dream a little, or do your Spanish homework, or chat with your friends who are on the same route (not sure this would be the case for DD).

Food for thought, though.

Minty, it's certainly higher than my local secondary, yes. I don't know about higher than average in central London.

I can only offer my own experience. I went to an academically excellent school 6 miles across a city which my parents chose over the local options. The pros were a school that encouraged high aspirations- the cons a 45-60min each way journey - I typically left home at 7.30 and got back at 5.45 with 2-3hrs homework, very few local friends (and TBH a few who I had nothing much in common with) and difficult to see non-local friends in the holidays (fares expensive and crap peripheral bus and train services). But...I'm still close friends with 2 of those people 30 years later and owe a lot to the academic environment the school offered. So hard to say. I love the fact though that my DDs are within walking distance of both primary and likely secondary schools.

My eldest goes to the secondary school nearest our house. Which is a grammar school and her friends come from all over the place! So even if you can control where your kid goes to school, you can't control for the fact that she might make friends with the child with the longest journey

Two of my other children go to school a few miles away and the journey door to door takes nearly an hour, mostly because the buses aren't very fast. They would prefer a shorter journey, but they wouldn't swap their school for it

My brother and I went to school in central London, from the suburbs. About a forty minute journey, which was about average. It was fine. We had local friends from out of school and friends all over London - not a problem at all.

Atia thanks for that, and absolutely love your name!

"Minty, I can't speak for all schools you have an issue with, but this particular school bands all their applicants into four ability bands, and distribute their allocations equally 25% per band (and yes, they do this with the church applicants as well). So yeah, comprehensive."

I'm just astonished that an outstanding school in London would be taking children from such a gigantic catchment. The most oversubscribed state school near me (most oversubscribed in the UK apparently) does 'fair banding' and the furthest out is about 2 miles from the school. And this is in zone 4, so not quite so densely populated as zone 1 and 2.

Would add, I've chosen a 45 minute journey over a school within walking distance.

My ds is struggling a bit with tiredness (he's just started) but I'm sure he'll adjust. Any extra time at home would only be spent staring at a screen anyway.... (he's like a lizard on a rock - no activity at all unless forced).

I was on the tube in central London yesterday and I felt so sorry for little ones in the crush. My DSs went to Dame Alice Owens in Potters Bar and the Islington children there had a commute of an hour or so ... but it was going against the rush and their destination was leafy Potters Bar ... and none of them seemed to mind. I didn't apply to London schools for mine just because the journey would have been too unpleasant. It's a big consideration.

Nicole, just to clarify - the school doesn't have a gigantic catchment. They take 40% local children just on distance criteria, as normal. The church places (60%) have a distance criteria too but typically people come from a much wider area, the maximum being around 5 miles away. For music places you can come from anywhere in London.

I had a 45 - 60 minute (depending on traffic) journey to school (mostly bus with a walk both ends). it was fine from the point of view that I got on with it and made the best of the bus journey; I made friends, I liked the social time and sometimes used it for children. My parents would have told others that the journey was well worth it for the better school.

But I sincerely believe to this day, that I would have done as well or better had I gone to the perfectly reasonable school that was 15 minutes walk away, had local friends and less travelling stress/tiredness. It is no coincidence that I choose to live a very short commute from my workplace and have prioritized local schools for my own DC.

Point being, I think there's a difference between acknowledging that a long commute is "fine" and thinking it is desirable.

Just to clarify that I used my bus journey for HOMEWORK - no idea what I was doing with children!