High School How long is an ok walk

[purpleme12]

High School child
How long would you consider is an ok walk to high school?

I just put DD's school into Google Maps (I've never actually done it!) It's 1.6 miles and takes her about 25 minutes, based on that I'd say about 2 miles would be the max.

A lot of primary schools do bikeability in year 6 precisely because many children will bike to school.

Second hand bikes are quite cheap and you can get panniers that go on the back.

She has done bikeability but I still don't really feel confident about her going on the road

Perhaps she could go on the pavement

This is so hard

Would she be able to get a lift one way each day? I think a 55 min walk one way is doable but I think both ways might be exhausting especially in year 7.

55 minutes is too much if doing it both ways. Especially in rain.

It’s too much one way. Remember this is day in day out every day of term, all weathers, laden with stuff. Non-starter.

My daughter walks about a mile and a half, including a big hill. It's her daily exercise there and back. Takes her about 40 minutes. Urban city area though. There are buses, but she doesn't use them.

And I speak from experience as someone who walked 25 mins to and from school every day in Scottish weather. It was the absolute max.

Personally I wouldn't want my kids walking anything close to that distance. A school day is long enough without two hours of walking a day. That said, I drive them the 10/15mins both ways so my perception might be different. They do a lot of sport though so they don't need the walk for exercise.

I'd say that's a bit too long both ways every day. I'd either try a bike, or give a lift in the morning and they walk home.

Sometimes they just have so much to carry, I remember mine having a guitar lesson, hockey and food tech on the same day for 2 terms, that was a lot to carry. Sometimes she was able to leave guitar or hockey kit at school but not every time. Is there a bus?

It's fine I think so long as it's a safe, well-lit fairly busy route with decent pavements. You need to be happy with her walking back alone in the darker, colder months.

You also need a contingency - you drive her, ask a friend's parent to give a lift, book a taxi - for days when it is pouring with rain or she has an unusually heavy load to take to school.

I also think you should ease her in gradually. Unfair to expect her to walk 2 hours a day alone with all her stuff from Day 1. She should be eased in until she gets used to the demands of secondary school.

I'd also rethink if your DC is going to one of those awful zero tolerance schools where she's expected to turn up looking absolutely spick and span and gets detention for forgetting a pencil. There's only so much an 11yo can be expected to deal with, and if she has to deal with a petty, totalitarian school regime all day, it's unfair to expect her to cope with a 2 hour round-trip on top of that. She'll soon start getting detentions and then she'll have the walk home on top of the detention.

Mine walk 50 mins back but get a lift there. It's good for them. I do worry about bag weight but otherwise it's a positive thing all round I think. They are offline, good for fitness, the environment, resilience, wellbeing. I see kids walking further than this. I just think good on you. I would kind of like the necessity of an hour or two walking a day.

Maybe a mile and a half? It's difficult to say. I went to a school that was about 10 miles away so I walked to the station then another mile to the school at the other end. That felt like almost too much walking. Even though it was probably only 1.5 miles each way. But that's partly BC I had to sit on a train for half an hour as well!
I'm not sure about now but we always had to bring really heavy books and folders and stuff in our bag so it was really heavy!

55 minute walk for a teenager who will be waking up earlier than they should be to commute for an hour, then leaving school tired. Nah

Is there an alternative route (even if it's a bit more circuitous, or requires a pick up later) that DC can do in bad weather?

55 minutes walk is fine, but there will always just be those days where it's cold or raining or the road is flooded etc. and you need to have an easy alternative. For kids with shorter walks, they can always find a workaround, but at 55 minutes you'd need to plan one in advance. The same is really true of the bike, even though the bike will make the day-to-day commute a lot quicker.

I do think it depends on where you live. The town we are in now plenty of children walk 30 mins from one end of town to the other where the schools are. Where we lived when my oldest started school I was uncomfortable with her 20 min walk home as it was not well lit and on a road where cars often were speeding.

When we moved ds and dd3 walked 25 mins each way through suburban housing with no problem. They both loved it as previously they had been 45 min bus and then 20 min walk.

It's all relative

My DS walks about 30 minutes (he goes a slightly longer route so he can go with friends). There is a bus for if it's really cold/wet etc but he says it takes longer than walking as it's busy when the weather is bad plus takes a rather circuitous route.

55 minutes is too long. 30 minutes is roughly what I would say is ok. I was given bus fare to school but sometimes I would walk in the summer and use the money to buy ice pops for me and my friend! My walk was 30 minutes which was easy.

Both my kids walked 2 miles to school and back most days. Going took about 40 minutes, coming home usually twice as long 😂
It's far but not too far IMO, depending on your child, how much they have to carry, if they'll have a friend to walk with at least some of the way.

Too long, especially twice a day. Maybe occasionally and,as pp said, depending on amount of stuff to carry.

That’s too far. They’ll be absolutely knackered if it is both ways daily, think of all the homework time they need to fit in too, plus clubs.

Once in a while would be ok but not daily.

Dont forget if your DC starts going to an after-school club etc then the walk home will start an hour or so later, and potentially end up in the dark. Not so problematic for a year 10/11 but night be for a recently turned 11 year old.

Personally 55 mins for me would be too long for my new year 7 - summer born. The walk to the secondary would take 50 to 55 the quick way, an hour plus the safer route. Instead they walk 10 mins to a train, 10 mins on train and ten mins the other side. We pay for the train at 45 pounds a month but it's a faster journey, warmer in winter for some of the trip and less wet when it's raining! Plus with other kids from school, safety in numbers and all that.

My walk was about 3 miles each way, some country lanes, some busy roads and junctions.

Got sexually assaulted three times but in the 70s nobody cared. It was what men did. There was a bus but girls got assaulted on that too.

Mine walks a mile. Takes him 20 mins

Sorry, just seen your post. I think 55 mins each way is too far. I wouldn't want to walk that twice a day. They'll be knackered