High School How long is an ok walk

[purpleme12]

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

As a walk it will probably do her good. However how will you and her feel when she's been carrying kit home for 55mins, is cold and soaked to the skin, and is just about to start her homework as other children are finishing theirs? Also what is the walk like in the dark? In mid November to mid January it will be dark until 8am ish and get twlighty at 3.30-4, being properly dark by 4.30. If school is 8.45 - 3.15 like my son's that will mean leaving 10 mins before it gets light, and arriving home in twilight, and that's assuming that she can get to the school build at 8.45 and leave it at 3.15. If she has to wee, go to her locker, or walk the full length of campus between the entrance/exit and her class, that will mean walking the first 25 mins or so before it's light and it being twilight to properly dark for the last 30 mins. Is this safe?

This is also something to think about! (So many things!)

Thing is i THINK her friends will go to the really near one and the other high schools that are just further away than the one this thread is about.

But she will have to be involved in the decision anyway
We will have to think about it

Also, how realistic is it she will get a place at the further school?

So you don't think she will be able to make new friends?

Though the OP is going to have fun being a taxi on weekends or even after school.

Well I won't be a taxi because I don't drive 😂

So how is she going to get to/from any new friends she makes at the school homes?

In time, I’m sure. But she’s not going to love the idea from the get-go, is she?

And her new friends will probably live very close to the new school, so they will all skip home together while she sets off on her hour’s walk home.

In the leaflet we got sent it said 96 per cent of people in our area got their first choice high school

I don't know how this is in other areas

The one this thread is about is a big school. Haven't looked into if this particular one is over subscribed or not yet but we'll see

By bus or walking. Whichever way is best from where they live

That's what we've always done.

Can you learn to drive by next September?

I won't be learning to drive so we work around it

Well the OPs answers means she isn't going to love the idea for most of the first year if not longer.

That she isn't going to love the idea of not going with her friends do you mean

45 mins.

Yes. The combo of
(a) having no friends when she moves up to a new school
(b) all her friends getting excited about starting the closer school together
(c) having to walk an hour there and back every day
(d) having nobody to walk with because her new friends will not live so far away

I will definitely consider those points when we think about it

The only thing I would say is that I'm honestly not sure what schools all her friends would go to/get into. Quite a few of them are looking at a few in our city and I'm not sure what ones each are putting down or how likely it is we'll get the first choice (unless the first choice is the one in the catchment area)
So that makes it kind of hard

Mine walk about 40-45 minutes.

When I was in school, I walked about ten minutes but my friend Emma walked at hour each way. In heels, as was the custom at the time

She'll get used to it.

The fact that 96% of people were allocated their first preference school doesn't mean your child will get into this school tho @purpleme12 does it? Unless a decent number of people from where you live apply to this school (which they may well of course).

Is your DD in year 6 now? You don't have a lot of time to look round the schools and make an informed decision tbh. Remember that if you put this school first, and get it, and then it's vey difficult to do the walk, you may not easily be able to get a place at the nearer school.

Have you thought about trying the walk now to see how long it really takes? And I agree wrt checking out how much stuff she will need to carry. I mean my example of DS2 was a bit extreme - he had music lessons at school but your DD may not; he used to take all his books with him every day (I have no idea why; I struggled to life up his school bag); and goodness knows why he took a tennis racquet to school.

If the school supplies cooking ingredients for food tech (yay! I would gladly have paid £50 a year for this!), expects books to be left at school (in the teacher's classroom; I used to keep my students’ books unless I knew they would remember them), and your DC doesn;t play double bass or even trombone (flute is fine haha) then she may not have to carry much more than a rucksack.

I still think 55 mins (how far is it?) is a long walk that I wouldn't be keen on twice. day.

No it doesn't mean she'll get into her first choice
I'm well aware that we might not get our first choice
I don't know how likely or unlikely that would be even

I'm going to walk there next week. I'm familiar with the first part of the route but haven't walked to the school yet.

I don't think it's late to look round the schools and make a decision. All the open evenings are this month and next month.

I don't feel like there's any school which I feel is definitely great for us.
Like I hear other people in other places know what school they want their child to go to.

I am sure the open evenings are this month, but you only have about six weeks before the deadline to apply. That's plenty of time to fill in a form of course. But from your answers here you seem vague as to what the issues are or might be with the local school and why this further away one is better.

I would be checking facts online about results, progress 8 and progress based on prior attainment; also I would be checking what sort of distance the school made offers to - that'll tell you if you are likely to get in (tho no guarantees) - if you live 3.5 miles away and the furthest pupil last year was 1.5 miles away, then the 55-minute walk is neither here nor there; that's all I am saying.

Ok fair enough this is the kind of help I need

How do I find out what distance the school made offers to?

What is classed as good progress 8 score?

I'd be happy for my kids to walk for an hour each way, though that might decrease depending on latitude, school start / finish times and whether there is adequate street lighting.

Which would be more expensive for me than one bus

Yes, obviously two buses each way would be more expensive than one, if you are paying individual single fares every time. Is there a season ticket that you could get for your DD, though?

And yes, although the official 'expected' maximum walk to school for a child of 8 or older may be 3 miles, I'm another one who thinks a solid 55 minute walk at the beginning and end of each school day is too much.

A positive progress 8 is good. (I think the classification goes well above average, above average, average, below average, well below average)

Google School Name government statistics, takes you to official government website

This information will be on your local council website, the same place that you go to make your application to the school. Here is the one from my borough, for example:

https://new.haringey.gov.uk/schools-learning/schools/school-admissions/find-schools-near-you

May be different if you are not in England.