High School How long is an ok walk

[purpleme12]

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

Both my child's primary and secondary publish a map with last year's catchment line on their web-site. It's not full proof, because the catchment area may change slightly year-on-year, but it's a good guide.

Thanks really interesting looking at that link.
Because I've looked at ours and ours has nothing like that about distance calculator and how many in previous years like in yours.
In fact I remember people saying the same thing on here about primary schools now and I looked then and there was nothing on ours then either

My DCs' secondary school is a 50 minute walk away. It's possible but I think both ways with bags would be too much for a Y7.

They scoot (slim micro type, not electric) and no, they don't get teased, and that cuts the journey to 25-30 minutes. Very doable. Then if they need to get the bus back if it's late, they can take the scooter on the bus.

And the scooter is safe at school?

Scooters are way more dangerous than bikes - little wheels. What’s the reason for not biking? I can do an hour’s walk in just over 10 mins on my bike.

55 mins twice a day really is a lot - especially in mid winter dark. Mine have 25-30 mins each way and even that drags when the weather is bad.

so far... I've marked them with nail varnish to put anyone off..... but maybe some kind of lightweight lock would be sensible!

@sunonthetrees really depends on the roads where you live. I would say cycling only shaves 5 mins off the scooting time but would be too dangerous on our route, especially after dark

My son did 1 mile walk to train station, 2 trains and another mile from station to school, so 4 miles a day, about 45 mins walking each way. He left home at 7.20am and got home at 4.45. That was from year 8.

He loved it, even in the rain.

While I agree cycling could be a good answer, that's either very fast biking or very slow walking. I reckon you can walk briskly at 3.5 miles per hour and cycle at 10-12 miles per hour. An 11-min bike ride would cover about two miles.

@purpleme12 any P8 score that is positive is good. The higher the better but up to about +1 is excellent. As an example, the very highly rated secondary near me has a P8 of +0.34.

Find that info for the schools in question here:
https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/

Oh thank you I didn't know about this link
Having a look at it now

I used to do a 20 min walk, but most kids here would get public transport for anything further, because we're in London where buses are free. We're looking at schools up to around 35 mins walk away, and that's the furthest I'd want to her to commit to walking. Of course she's capable of walking further, but the density of schools here means that it makes no sense to go for a further school - there are good enough schools within that distance. There are a few excellent schools further away which she might consider going to if she passed the selective exams, but then she'd travel by tube, not walking. I wouldn't feel happy about her cycling as I don't feel it's safe unless it could be done on segregated cycle paths, but there are some very busy roads as we're close to central London.

I think 55 min is fine.

I think it's totally impractical and I wouldn't even entertain it, for the reasons others have given. The poor girl.

I think it's ok too. DS walks for about 45 mins and has done since primary.

If you've not done the walk is it actually 55 mins @purpleme12 ? I find Google not always reliable on this. How far is it?

I find Google maps really reliable for it.
Use it all the time

Google maps will not clearly show you any possible short cuts.

I know when I walked to school, my friends walked to a different school, and with schools in the other London boroughs I lived/live in there are short cuts to many of the secondary schools. These short cuts while public rights of way, so legitimate paths, are hard/impossible to see on Google maps plus the schools don't advertise the routes. The routes are often down paths along or through housing estates/parks.

I know from my former childminder the reason that schools don't advertise the routes because parents and their children can cause lots of parking problems and disruption.

Anyway in my case the short cut through a housing estate took 20 minutes of the journey so it was 35 minutes at normal speed.

Edited to add some pupils also cycle to school though again the route they take is often not the officially route.

Google maps also doesn't show you the paths that you really don't want to walk down, particularly when it's getting a bit dark (as it will for the after school walk, quite soon).

This can add quite a bit to the journey.

I know most of the journey we walk past of it each week. I just haven't been to the school yet

It's not just the walk. It's the walk carrying a double base and a batch of fairy cakes. It's the walk late after a rehearsal or after a rugby match. It's friends coming round. It's the walk after being sent home throwing up.

A walk to school is obviously fine. But I do think there need to be options.