Is Surbiton within St Paul Girls' 50-min catchment?

[bayesian]

Is Surbiton (around Oakhill) considered within the 50-minute commutable zone by St Paul Girls?

Q: Is there a limit on how far students can travel to school each day?
Students are required to live within a 50-minute commute of the school and we may decline to pursue an application where, in our opinion, it may require an unrealistically demanding journey for the student.

Personally, my DD has told me some stories of friends who live as far as Windsor but I think it depends on your DD much more than how far you live from the school. It's not really relevant if she performs very well in the 11+ and interview. Either way, I don't think the commute would be considered excessive. My DD tells me the average commute there is from 25 minutes to a bit over an hour.

I know two girls who get the school coach from North London and they said it takes 1hr30 each way with all the stops.

The North London coach is timetabled for 1 hour 5 minutes to East Finchley, but it was disrupted in September and October because of roadworks on the A3220 by Westfield so it did take 1.5 hours for over a month. I think the 50 minute policy is fairly new and the East Finchley and Golders Green stops are probably grandfathered in for the girls who were admitted before the policy was adopted.

That said, I don't think there's anything in the policy which specifies the means of commuting, e.g., that it has to be by public transport. Windsor, East Finchley, and Surbiton are all within 50 minutes drive of the school in decent traffic, if you're prepared to drive, or pretend that you will drive, your girl to and from school.

I think the 50 minute policy is fairly new

The policy was there when we looked 2 years ago I agree it is a brutal commute though. DS travels 40 minutes door to door by tube and he is tired when he gets back.

DD is doing her A Levels and I think the policy was around when she started, though it might have been 60 mins at that point. @bayesian, I'd suggest emailing the admissions office and asking. I am sure they will help.

It is quite a long commute, but DD quite enjoyed her similar journey as she had lots of friends travelling the same way. And she got used to it quite fast. So it depends on whether you think your child would be OK with it.

The school is really trying to enforce this, they sent out an email to some who seem to live too far, asking to confirm how they plan to commute. Also I suppose it affected how they offered in the end, coincidentally the girls in DD's school who did not get places lived the furthest (and over 50 mins commute).

I know a girl who started year 7 in Sept last year and she lives in Tolworth. She gets the train from Surbiton to Wimbledon and then there is a school bus that takes her to SPGS.

The school has had this 50 minute commute policy in place for several years. However, it has often contradicted itself in practice. For instance, the school has offered coach services with commute times that regularly exceed an hour as upthread pointed out. I also know of several girls who travel over an hour from areas like Watford, Reading, and Surrey. That said, it appears that the admissions office has started to place more emphasis on this policy, at least from this year onward, when reviewing applications. Would be interested to see if that would change the intake profile and ultimately the league table results in a few years time .

as a student - trust me they don't particularly care, there are people i know of who live in kent so...
as long as you do well in the exams and interview then it'll be fine
however i am graduating 2029 so the policy may have changed
(i absolutely recognise this is extremely late and the second round of exams is coming in two weeks)