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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

40 minute bus each way?

28 replies

Kate223344 · 18/06/2018 09:01

Do you think a 40 minute bus journey to school is too far from age 11-16? It would be nearly an hour door to door. Just wondering how children manage with homework and after school clubs. I suppose my child would still get home at around 4.30pm so maybe it's not too bad. Grateful for your views as I'm not sure we can afford to move closer.

OP posts:
Bekabeech · 18/06/2018 09:13

Lots of children this age do it.
Key things to think about are: after school sports and clubs, getting to parents evenings, friends in the other direction. If it is quicker by car, especially "off peak", then its not really a problem. And sometimes it is the best solution.

londonloves · 18/06/2018 09:36

I did this for 7 years, after school clubs weren't really a thing at my school though as everything like that happened at lunchtime. If I went to a friends after school it was usually a Friday for a sleepover so mum would collect me on Saturday.

sallythesheep73 · 18/06/2018 09:53

Our 8 year old has just started doing this! He goes on a school mini bus. Its just over an hour door to door. But he really enjoys it. Once a week I pick him up so he can go to an afterschool club. He practices his spellings on the bus!

Iwantacampervan · 18/06/2018 09:57

Is there only one bus home or are there more (or other options) if they want to stay later for clubs?
40 minutes isn't too bad - mine listened to music & others frantically finished homework!

FatCow2018 · 18/06/2018 09:59

Fine! Do homework on the bus, that's what we used to do!

Floottoot · 18/06/2018 09:59

Both mine do it. DD leaves the house at 7.15 am, home at just before or after, depending on when DS gets back - his bus arrived at either 4.50pm or 5.50pm, and then it's another 10 minutes home in the car.
They are long days and DS in particular dislikes the minibus journey but the alternative is worse.

Floottoot · 18/06/2018 10:00

Sorry, should say just before or after 5pm

Seeline · 18/06/2018 10:27

Is it a school bus or public transport? If the latter, how reliable would it be - delays/cancellations etc.
Are there options if DC needs to get in earlier/later?

I don't think the length of journey is too long IF the journey is reliable, doesn't involve multiple changes (where greater delays can occur), and is flexible.

PatriciaHolm · 18/06/2018 11:03

I wouldn't worry about the length of the journey, more the flexibility - what happens if they miss the bus, or want to stay to do a club?

RedSkyAtNight · 18/06/2018 11:13

Well it's "fine" from the point of view that lots of DC do it (similar to the way that lots of adults also have stupidly long commutes).

But from the point of flexibilty, tiredness, not being able to hang out with friends, less time to do out of school activities/homework .... it's really not ideal. I had a similar journey to school as a child, it's not a coincidence that my DC go to a school that is 15 minute walk away (though my parents would still insist that the journey was "fine")

TeenTimesTwo · 18/06/2018 14:27

I don't think my DD currently y8 would cope with an hour door to door.
She finds school hard enough without adding another 2 hours to her day. Even doing homework in the evenings is a hard push and stuff like maths gets left for when she is fresh at the weekend. But she might be unusual.

steppemum · 18/06/2018 14:32

my dcs do this 1 hour door to door.

The things we took into consideration:

  1. most kids at their school do this, so most clubs etc are at lunchtime.
  2. it was public transport, so if they stayed late, they could get a later one
  3. as above, if they wanted to meet friends they could go there on the public transport (in our case a train)
  4. the time they left home and got home. Some kids I know are sitting on a bus at 7 am. It is just too early.
  5. other kids. There are a friendly group on our train, it is very sociable
LemonBreeland · 18/06/2018 14:37

I live fairly rurally and many children have this length of journey to school as standard. Some primary children don't have much less. So it is certainly doable.

Original poster
Kate223344 · 18/06/2018 14:46

Thanks for the input. It would be a public bus. By car it is around 20 mins but in the opposite direction of my commute so that wouldn't work.

OP posts:
MilkyCoffeeAndSkinnySyrup · 18/06/2018 14:51

I had to walk an hour each way.

Bekabeech · 18/06/2018 14:56

20 mins by car does make parents evenings etc far more accessible.

eurochick · 18/06/2018 15:19

Completely normal. I did similar from 12-18. Many people travelled further than I did.

Iceswan · 18/06/2018 15:55

Most people travelled by coach from all over the place to go to my school.

Most of my friends travelled for this amount of time.

lifechangesforever · 18/06/2018 16:26

This is the situation we're going to have if DD goes to the independent school we want - they do have a bus that stops right outside our house but it picks up at 7.30 and she'll be home at 4.30. Any after school clubs she'll need to be picked up by us. Good to hear that this is not out of the ordinary.

Just seems a lot compared to my 15 minute walk when I was at school - but then again, it was all about what was closest when I went to school, not what was best for me.

Petalflowers · 20/06/2018 03:34

My dc journey door-to-door is roughly an hour by public bus and walking, or 20 minutes by car. It’s not unusual.

SnuggyBuggy · 20/06/2018 03:40

I did this for secondary. I didn't do any after school clubs. The main disadvantage was that it made it tricky to meet up with friends, even at 16 it was a pre arranged play date with lifts from parents or nothing which kind of sucked.

Iwasjustabouttosaythat · 20/06/2018 04:40

I did this as a child and found it pretty exhausting. You just want to get home and relax but you’re stuck on a bus for ages. Also it’s ok if you have friends to talk to on the bus, but if you’re stuck on there with mean kids it’s really unpleasant.

Candyflip · 20/06/2018 04:58

I did it and absolutely hated it. So much so I just stopped going to school altogether. I scraped through GCSEs and completely fucked up my A-levels. It was very important to me that my children never had to do that. We back onto the school playing field. It’s fantastic.

PrimalLass · 20/06/2018 05:39

I did this but on a school bus so it was fine. However, my DS's secondary school is 10 mins drive now and that's invaluable.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 20/06/2018 05:54

50 mins door to door here. It’s fine.

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