Which secondary school?

[Kia79]

Hi. I'm in a major dilemma. DD is in Y6 so we've got to pick a secondary school very soon.

We've got two secondary schools in our town. One is a 5min walk and the other is a 30min walk. The one further way is a much better school (academically and better facilities etc) but DD wants to go to the closer one...because she doesn't want to walk the 1.3miles to get there every day!

I've said she could get a bus for the days that it's chucking it down with rain but otherwise she'll have to walk.

I'm not in a position to drive her or pick her up and nor is her dad.

Should we choose a school based on distance or opportunities and results? Is a 1.3mile walk really that far?

Help!

1.3 miles isn’t far to walk to school, I used to walk 2.4 miles each way (did have the option of the bus but the bus stop was 1.1 miles from my house so preferred to walk and save the bus money).

I would 100% choose the better school in these circumstances. I think you need to make the choice and the choice shouldn’t be made based on distance when it’s only 1.3 miles.

Also once she’s there she might make friends with people who walk the same way / live near by which will make the walk better for her.

I just checked distances to schools past locally - apparently, mine was 1.5 miles, DC’s was 1.2 miles as is his 6th form, the closest secondary school to us 0.6 miles. I cycled, DC walks everywhere. The closest catchment school sounds pretty similar in terms of size and performance to the one nearest to you. The 2 most popular choices around here are the one our DC went to and another school that’s 1.9 miles away. The further away one is not directly on the bus route, so most cycle. DC’s was on the bus route.

I think your DCs journey would be easily manageable, especially if it’s on the bus route. Re the other school, if it’s one of those never seems to quite get it together schools I would give it a miss.

OP said there was a bus. If OP wants her daughter to go to that school and dd wants the other one cos less far to walk then it makes sense to offer to pay for the bus. But I'm of the let your kids choose their own secondary school as they're the ones that have to spend 5 years there. Those where parents pushed them into their preference either ended up changing schools or were unhappy.

Better school, but let her take the bus whenever she wants.

We often used to walk rather than get the bus. Once she is used to it and has friends it will be fine.

Assuming there are no safety concerns on the route I would go for the further school.