How long is your DC's school commute?

[Schoolhelp23]

I'm central London and have a very academic child. Can't move, so weighing up how long a commute is reasonable (for the likes of HBS, St Michael's - if she gets in). So, how long is your child's school commute?

As i said upthread we have a big commute. When I worked in the same town as the school I'd drop them off at 08.10 (school starts at 08.20) and DH who was working from home but then retired would pick them up. I now WFH so I do the morning and DH does the afternoon. My core hours are 10-4 pm and I do much longer than that (frequently into the evening as I manage our US office and they dont come online until the afternoon)

I drive foster teen 1 hour each way to college. He has learning disabilities and that restricts the number of settings suitable for him. He likes his college and feels comfortable there. He is doing well and they provide him with a 1-1 support assistant. It does take 4 hours out of my day and sometimes if we get in bad traffic 5 hours. As his foster carer I see this as part of my job though caring for him and making sure he gets the best opportunities he can have. He works hard at college and never complains about his homework so he deserves his chance. After a while it just becomes routine. We get up and leave early to try to avoid rush hour on the way in.

Is the child that commutes to school and not the parent....

Plenty of people on the thread have explained how they drive their child or accompany their child to school for whatever reason and the poster was asking about the logistics really, if the parent also works.

About 35-40 mins into central London with kids coming from all over up to an hour. Anything over an hour is nearly always insane IMO unless say an easy commute with a seat.

HBS is great and all that (I don’t know St Michael’s) but I would carefully weigh extra time against quicker options that may be decent.I see on my local Facebook 11+ groups some crazy parents who are sending their kids by private coach really long distances for a grammar they perceive to be better than the local grammar - yes it is probably a bit better but really not enough to justify the huge amount of extra travelling in my view.

If you’re low income do look at bursaries.

Based on experiences in my work place a lot of them are ostensibly working at home (I say ostensibly, because you're clearly not wfh if you're out for an extended period taking your DC to school).

Speaking for myself, we washed out all the schools that DC couldn't get to independently because we couldn't make it work with our jobs. So I assume the parents that do this have more accommodating employers or don't do a 9-5 type job.

7-8 minute walk.
We moved here specifically to be in catchment.
The right decision because kids take full advantage of extra-curricular activities 8am music clubs, after school clubs and easily back to represent the school for evening events. Abd they are completely independent about it. They even have time to get home, have food, change and get back to school.
I had a 45 minute walk home (no public transport) and I could cycle more quickly but it was hard with musical instruments so I usually walked.

Primary 30 minute drive, then five minute walk. Secondary five minute walk then first one college - 45 minutes bus, other sixth form 45 minute tube/walk. Ma
Many of DD's classmates had 45 minute tube commute for all of secondary.

~30 minutes on foot or ~10 by bike.