Travel to Secondary School

[London1305f]

My DC is in year 5 so we are having to make decisions soon about secondary schools. Am I crazy to consider applying for schools that would take an hour to get to each day? There are a few private schools that have a coach service that would pick up at 7.30am and the drop off again at 5.30pm. Would an 11 year old just find this too much on top of homework etc?

I agree with the person upthread who said that it depends on what the journey is. A single, reliable train ride where the child will always get a seat might be okay but two tubes and a bus will be hard work.

Depending on where you are, an hour travelling may mean the school is really far away. If all the tubes break, that could mean that an eleven year old is stuck on the wrong side of London (for instance).

From memory, one of the girls’ schools (St Paul’s) has brought in a policy where they won’t offer a place to girls who will have to travel for more than 50 minutes. Presumably they have a large enough pool of candidates that they can do that.

I think it depends on the alternatives. If there is a reasonable school nearby where all the local kids go to then that would be the better option. Think about what you will do when they want to start meeting up with friends at the weekend. Will you just say no it’s too far? So they miss out?

Depends on the journey and the local alternatives. Mine have a 45 minute journey on one private bus. Just enough time to read, watch something on their phone or chat to friends. The destination is worth the journey but they don’t have local friends. Plenty of contact on phones or over WiFi though.

We live in a city (not London) and DC go to local bog standard comp about 15 mins walk away. An hour's commute does sound pretty full on.

My DD’s journey is similar. She loves the time on school coach. They have bus friends beyond year groups and even boys from next door school as two schools share bus service. 1 hour journey is common for her school and I don’t see the problem.