Travel time to secondary school/North London

[Rrelaxo]

Hello dear parents! Our DD has been lucky to be offered a few places in selective schools and we have accepted South Hampstead. Next step is for us to find a convenient place to live. We are currently renting but will be looking to buy a place so we have started checking the nearby areas (we now live within walking distance to the school but wouldn’t be able to afford to buy in Hampstead :)).

I was wondering what distance do your children travel to school? I find a few areas within 30-40 min commute by bus, which I think is reasonable. But for example we could also move to Mill Hill, which, despite being further is actually just a 20 min commute on Thameslink in a direct train to West Hampstead.

I realise that this school is quite local in terms of students, but we need to strike the right balance as a family too. Since we are fairly new to London, I was wondering - would you send your daughter alone on a 20 min commute on Thameslink? Are the trains a safe way for children to travel or would you try to find something that limits the commute to bus or tube? Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and experiences!

I don't know about the safety but my nephew had a 40 minute commute on a school bus and it meant he couldn't stay for any after school activities and when he got to year ten and eleven and the homework increased he found it hard to fit everything in. He wasn't getting home until 4:45. Obviously he needed a bit of down time and to eat and then he had two hours of homework. Whereas my dd was home at 3:15. Then he was out the door again at 6:40am.

I think the distance/time is less important than whether or not there are others from her school doing the same journey and living locally to you. I think travelling on public transport alone would be pretty miserable, but if she can go with other girls it would be fine. So ideally I’d choose to live in an area that others already commute from. The other thing I’d think about is how easy it would be for you to pick her up from school on the occasional dark evening when she’s stayed late for a club and her friends have travelled home earlier.

It’s also good to increase her chance of having friends that live relatively locally so that she can see them outside of school easily.

The issue with the train is that she would be travelling at peak times in the morning when it will be packed (not at present of course). Plenty of kids get the train to schools in Hertfordshire from Mill Hill but they are going against the flow.

Have you enquired if there are any designated school bus services & the routes they follow?

The DfE suggest that up to 75mins travel time is reasonable for a secondary school pupil. I think a lot of London pupils travel unaccompanied on bus, train or Tube.

I'd say 20 mins on Thameslink is absolutely fine. Up to an hour is standard for private and selective schools tho it does seem long. Worth finding out if you can where the other girls live - suburbs or more inwards, like Islington/Highbury.

Thank you! We are still quite flexible, so will probably wait for the start of the school year to see where the girls generally travel from and then try to find a place that fits the budget. :)

London trains and tubes are full with secondary school children but it is sardine standing only during morning rush hour and schools are not sympathetic with cancelled or delayed trains.

I commuted into London and my experience with trains means I would never subject DD to this.

You also need to think about facts like school events around 6-7pm, so your child is travelling back and forth, how often is this required? They may have to carry musical instruments or PE kits with them.

How will longer travel times fit with after school activities? While most of DD’s activities started later in the afternoon/early evening, she still needed a break and also the school expect 1hr/90minutes homework and revision per day.