How important is being able to walk to school?

[AnnabellesScarf]

Starting to think about applying to secondary schools.

We have 2 good ones that we have a healthy chance of getting into.

One, school A, is a 20 minute walk away.

The other, school B, is in the next town, and would involve a fifteen minute walk to the station, a ten minute train ride and another fifteen minute walk onwards from the station.

I think there might possibly be a school bus as well, I don't know how long that takes or if there would be spaces on it. School is only actually a 20 minute drive away, so perhaps a bus would be quite quick.

Both schools look attractive, and we will go to the open days and look round both.

But we are struggling to decide how much weight to give the fact that a school is walking distance. School B is a lot more shiny and modern and I expect we will all be wowed by the facilities.

Would you pick one school over another purely on distance?

DH went to his nearest school, in walking distance, regrets it and wishes he had gone to a different one a bus ride away.

I had no secondary school in walking distance so had to travel anyway - it didn't particularly bother me (but I disliked that lots of my friends lived far away). On the other hand, one of the reasons we moved here was so that DC could walk to school.

DH thinks we should judge the best school for itself without thinking about location.
I think location is a key factor in deciding which is best.
DS, I suspect, will want to go where most of his friends go, or where has the shiniest facilities (ie, probably school B)

[AnnabellesScarf]

Lots of things to think about here. I envisage spreadsheets with pros and cons of each school written on. Very good point made about the difference between keen 11 year olds and lazy teenagers!

DC's primary is a named feeder school (or whatever they are called) for school B, so we have a high chance of a place. It has several feeder schools over a very wide area, so I assume lots of pupils will come by bus or train. Train is reasonably reliable and frequent enough (every 20 minutes)

School A has a very small catchment area, but we live inside it, so again, good chance of a place.

Academically the schools are very similar. School A has slightly better results, but there really isn't much in it.
Pastorally, School B looks to have the edge, but perhaps they are just better at presenting themselves on their website.

I hope I will have more of a feel for which one I prefer for DS when I have been to the open days.
I will take DS's preference into account. I do think if he doesn't want to travel, maybe I ought not to make him, but I know that DH won't agree with that.

[MarshHarriet]

I was two bus rides away from my school and my parents did a lot of taxi-ing once the teen parties started.

I find a school with a close catchment places children in a good social circle - my kids have walked to primary and secondary, and can easily walk to friends houses.

[heron98]

I went to an excellent school that was a longish bus journey away.

The school was great, but I hated that journey so much. I felt constantly exhausted and none of my friends lived anywhere near me so I rarely saw anyone at weekends or after school.

I think being able to walk to school is a hugely important.

[catslife]

Check the start and end times for the school day. There is a significant difference if they have to be in school for 8.25am to if they have to be there at 9am to start the day when travelling.
What about extra-curricular activities particularly those after school. Secondary pupils often have more equipment to take to school and locker space could be limited. At one stage dd had to carry her trumpet, PE kit and items for DT Food Tech all on the same day which would have been very difficult on a bus or train. If they forget an item of PE kit or their homework, it's much easier for a parent to drop it off at school for them if they are at a nearby school for example.
I would be careful about labelling teenagers as "lazy" it's more that there body clock shifts, so they are wide awake and alert later in the mornings but also keep going to much later in the evenings too.

[LBOCS2]

Shouldn't be a factor.

My secondary was a 10 min walk-10min train ride - 10 min walk away, and that was absolutely normal within my peer group (inner London selective school) - lots of them were on the bus for 40-50 minutes each way. It's not unusual, particularly for a good school or one without a traditional 'catchment' so students come from a wider geographical area.

[NotCitrus]

I think being able to get there themselves is important, method less so. Parents being able to help on special occasions is possibly a consideration.

[Needmoresleep]

It is a factor, but just one of many to be weighed up.

DD had a 40 minute commute on bus and tube, which was fine. She then changed at sixth form to a school that only took girls at that point, and had a 10 minute walk. It was so much nicer, which does not mean that the first school was the wrong choice, nor that the journey was not manageable.

A lot may depend on whether there is much going on after school or how easy it is to say, do bits of homework on the journey. Language vocabularly learning perhaps. Or friends to share the journey. Safety, frequency, and alternative routes are also worth considering. DD somehow managed to get all her homework done at school or on the tube , but we got sick of picking her up if she was playing in a late match or similar. She also had "five bag days" which involved me driving up to meet her at the tube.

[ImNotDancing]

I didnt go to my local secondary (not walking distance but 10 mins on the bus)
Instead I went to one that was an hour and a half bus journey away (and then another ten minute walk)
honestly, although the one I went to had a better ofsted rating (to begin with at least) I wish I'd gone to the local one
My social life suffered massively, had no way of doing anything after school because it took so long to got home and I lived so far away it was hard to do things at the weekends which led to me feeling totally isolated in and out of school

[bigTillyMint]

Both sound fine - given the public transport one is not that far away. Where do the DC that ho to that school live - would there be many travel lung that same way/living nearby for socialising?

My DC got v used to public transport v quickly and zip about all overy the place to see/with friends/to do sport. After the first week you will wonder what you were worrying about

[HippyPottyMouth]

I went to a school in the next town. At the time I was able to have a free bus pass until the end of Year 11, but round here at least, that's not available any more. My mum factored in distance from bus stop when we moved house, and accepted that my social life would largely be in School Town, so was happy to give me lifts to friends' houses and pick me up late from the pub when I was in sixth form. Without that, it would have been more difficult, as it was for friends with less obliging parents.

The journey to and from school was fine. The bus was full of kids going to my school. The only disadvantage was that I missed out on having friends round the corner who I could knock for on the off- chance. I lost touch with most of my friends from primary school as they all went to the same secondary in our town. Socialising took just a little bit more planning. It was a really minor disadvantage, and 20 years on I still have lots of school friends. If the further away school has real advantages over the local one I would do it for my DD in a heartbeat, when the time comes.

[ChippyMinton]

Mine travel to secondary. 2 catch the bus, one takes the train then walks.
I am happy that they chose the best schools for them. Although it means an early start (7.20am) they can be home by 3.45 or 4pm.

I was initially concerned about the time spent travelling, but realised that the kids who catch the bus to the more local schools have to leave at the same time because their buses are overcrowded.

[amidawish]

i would always choose a school with a decent journey, which school B sounds to me
i wouldn't choose an amazing school with a hideous journey

but i also wouldn't just go for the closest school

sometimes a bit of a journey to school is good to give a bit of distance/wind down/time out

[Davros]

Like some others I had an awful journey to and from school and I'm still bitter about it (I'm 56 now!). It was an excellent and highly regarded school and I still have friends from then but I feel the journey was a massive disadvantage. My mum did not drive so that was not an option. If there were any problems with the transport, which there frequently were and it was much less reliable then, I just had to suck it up. I remember crying waiting for a bus on my own for over an hour after netball practice. Everyone else had gone and it was getting dark. Awful! It did make me independent but, looking back, perhaps a bit too much! As I got older I often just went to a friend's after school and stayed overnight, sometimes two or three nights in a row! It was rather odd really