Is it too much to let a child travel 50 minutes to school?

[mehesdfds753]

May I ask this question?

We are looking for a new house. The purpose is preparing for my oldest son's potential secondary school next year.

If things go according to our plan, the child is expected to study at an independent school at Year 7.

However, due to the housing budget, it is most likely my child will need to use public transport to go to school. It looks like he will spend at least 45-50 minutes to travel from home to school.

Subject to the actual location, he may need to use the rail station and then use the bus to go to school.

And we know that in real life, many children will simply walk to their secondary school.

So is it too much and cruel to ask my child to travel that far?

My sincere thanks,

DD has been commuting to school in London since she was 5 - now 11. She'll do the same for secondary. It's about an hour and a half each way by train and tube.

She does loads of extra-curricular classes after school in London, and uses the hour on the train to do homework and reading or play games.

A good long stretch on one form of transport is much easier and less stressful than lots of interchanges.

It's always a bit tiring at the beginning of term when you are out of the routine, and dark mornings aren't our favourite thing, but she hasn't found it particularly difficult at all.

There are loads of secondary school kids for about 5 different schools on the same train as us, many doing a similar journey to ours.

When it came to secondary applications, I looked at our local options and the closest one still meant almost an hour on a bus due to the routes schedules. The one she's going to in September has no catchment so a huge geographical spread and it won't be the case that she's the only one not living locally.

Mainly it depends on the child - DD doesn't tire easily

It really does depend on the child. Our eldest went to a local independent school, ten minutes by car, home soon after 4pm every day. Our youngest will be travelling much further, will have to leave the house by 6.40am each day, and will be home much later every day too; but it’s very much where she wants to go. It’s certainly been a dilemma for us, as she has a place at a good local grammar school ten minutes away. but a scholarship at an independent school that we feel would offer a much more rounded education. Sometimes the easiest option, is not necessarily the best one.

Not too far as long as he can get home if he wants to stay for clubs etc.

50 minutes is probably the maximum I'd consider, depending on the alternatives - eg if the school was much, much better than the closer ones.
The secondary school DS is starting in September (🤞) will be 25 minutes, but it's a super-selective grammar with no catchment, so children commonly do travel further. However, the school themselves say ideally it shouldn't be over an hour.

My year 6 DD will travel 50min from September. 10 min drive from home to school bus stop, then 10 min wait, 30 min to the school by bus.

My DD (year 7) has a 50 minute each way bus journey - her school (State) is a much better option than the local alternative so we went for that. Around 50% of the kids in our village do similar journeys to surrounding grammars and independents.

So far, on balance we’re still comfortable with this. There have been instances of the bus breaking down and being late. After school clubs (she does one) are more of an issue and thanks to timing, she has to do three short train journeys to get home. I can’t say that I’ve not felt anxious about her doing this on her own & do spend a lot of this on the phone to her and tracking her every movement on a mobile phone app! She gets home at 4.45 on a normal day, 6pm on the after school club evening and has to get up in the morning at 6am. Homework has been piled on so far so it’s been a pretty full on time for her.

My advice would to be really weigh up the advantages of the school further away to the local school - if they aren’t significant then ask yourself if it’s going to be worth all the additional time. For my DD it is (she got a Music place & her school offer much in the Performing Arts area she likes) but it hasn’t come without cost for all of us! If you decide to go for it, do practice school runs, first with your DC and then let them do it on their own (with you physically stalking them!). Trains and buses do on a pretty regular basis not turn up on time or get cancelled. Print out timetables for them and you so you can look at alternative options quickly. Download train/bus apps on their phone & do download a tracking app on the phone (we use Life360 but there are other options) and give them a lot of mobile data.

In our area this ‘was’pretty common. A single form of transport being less stressful than multiple changes.

I think you have to consider the ‘new normal’ though and how in the short term your child will travel if public transport is severely restricted or unavailable. As a new Y7 without a peer group to travel with this could be quite stressful. Is there potential for car pooling or buddying up with someone if the usual transport options fail?

Door to door air conditioned coach with lots of friends? Acceptable (just).
Public transport subject to crowding, cancellation etc.? Too much.

I'm another who travelled a long way on public transport to school. All my friends lived far away so weekends and holidays were lonely. I wouldn't choose the same for my kids.

I know quite a few people who had a similar commute on two buses (bus into the centre of town and then a separate bus from the centre to near to their school). If 50 minutes is the maximum possible length of time it might take then it is okay. If it is the minimum then it isn't.

A while ago, St Paul's Girls' School said that girls had to live within a reasonable distance from the school and shouldn't travel for more than 50 minutes each way (so wouldn't consider any girl who would have to travel for longer). I think the Head said that sports team practice often started at 7:30am so a long commute would stop girls from fully taking part in school life.