How far is too far to go to sixth form?

[littlemissbiscuit]

DD (Y10) is struggling to find a decent sixth form nearby so is searching further afield. She's super keen on some of the Birmingham schools and this generally seems to entail about an hours train ride to moor st station then a short wait in the city centre for a 30 minute bus ride each way.
Aibu for saying no? She deserves the best education but travelling 3 hours per day would be so exhausting, excluding any delays or traffic (I imagine the trains are so busy at that time too). I'm also concerned about safety as being in the centre of Birmingham isn't great from experience.
I think she could manage it and thrive incredibly in these schools but the last thing I want is for her to start falling behind and losing motivation because of it.

How far would you let your kid travel to sixth form?

I agree with you OP, I think that's too far. Imagine doing all that and then coming home to do homework or revise. It's a really hard choice though if the schools around aren't very good.

Here the sixth form colleges are in the cities so all kids have to get buses or trains if they attend then (up to yr11 they are bussed from one village to another to attend school)..it's a bus at 6:30-7:00am to be there by 9:00am (and that's if you are lucky - it's only 10 miles away but rural buses and traffic...). So 3 hours commute seems normal?

How reliable are your trains? My DD's college is 20 mins walk 20 mins train 20 mins walk which is ok, but the amount of times the trains are cancelled. At least the strikes seem to be over though. Luckily there is also a bus and I can give lifts but if she was totally reliant on trains she'd have missed a lot of college.

Presumably like college it's not full days most of the time? DD comes and goes fairly randomly but had only ever had one full day in any week.

How many days would she have to be in? A friend of DD's did a similar sort of journey but her course was organised so that the stuff she had to be on site for was only on 2 days, and the rest of the time she was expected to work independently. That journey (which is really more than 1.5 hours as you haven't factored in the bits at both ends) might be doable just for 2 days if the sixth form offered something that wasn't available elsewhere.

If it's 5 days a week, I agree with you. Far too much. But I also think it's your DD's choice. Suggest she actually makes the journey (ideally at the right time of day) to see how she feels about it.

Dd travelled a full hour to her 6th form - it was ok but the issue we did come up against was when she had several hours' gap in the middle of the day (and could have come home if she were nearer). Also when she had been in school all day and wanted to go out with school friends in the vicinity of the school in the evening but didn't have time to get home, get changed, eat and go back - she had to invite herself over to a friend's place for the gap between 4.30pm and 7.30pm - it was pretty tiring. And then travelling back on her own, late at night, was not ideal.
Then she moved to a college 90mins away but it was geared up for students travelling a long way, with a 10am start time and only taught in person 3 days a week so actually easier!

It's much too far. She'll be tired, there's the safety aspect, it'll be expensive in fares and she also be far from friends at the school, which will limit socialising.

Dd used to travel 30 min walk, 45 min by train, then 10 min bus. 5 days a week. Left home at half seven. She ended up getting a job in her 6th form City and they had a kitchen there so had a place to study before shifts. Started shift at 6. Finished work at 11 and travelled back. That was only 3 days a week though working. Plus a shift on the Saturday. (4 in total)
Did really well and got excellent grades - enough to study medicine.
So it suits some students but not others. only you can tell if your child will cope.

I did that journey time for secondary school. It was two buses. I managed. I wasn't exhausted. And I did it for five years not two. It's often normal for a job to require this kind of commute as well.

I commented on your other thread.
Has she looked at Colleges instead of a school 6th Form?
Warwick College (which confusingly is in Leamington) offers A-levels if that's what she is after.

Yes she has, unfortunately Warwick doesn't offer what she wants but she's considering Solihull and Cadbury at the moment as well.

I don't think that there's a way of finding out how many days she will be in until she gets her timetable unfortunately. Did you find that your DD and other friends weren't in school the whole week too?

I drive foster son 20 miles about an hour each day into Edgbaston Birmingham so he can study the BTEC Sports Cricket course. We have a similar course locally about 3 miles away but there the focus is on football. Then I collect in th afternoon. He's doing really well on his course so I think it's worth it.

I wouldn't want a commute longer than 50 mins. But we are London-based and there are plenty of options within that distance, and travelling further wouldn't make sense for standard subject options. If they wamted to do more specialist options I'd rather have them board than have a long commute. My dcs do a lot of extracurriculars so I like them to have the time and energy for that rather than travelling for hours every week.

My college commute was either half an hour on the direct college bus that only ran first thing or at 4.30 or about an hour and a quarter the rest of the time (two buses with a half hour wait in the middle, we used to go to a cafe to wait). The bus journeys were very sociable with lots from the college on them. I could never come home in the middle of the day, no one did, we had those big gaps in the timetable and either studied in the library or sat around chatting in the refectory, there was nowhere to go within walking distance. It was fine and I made great friends that I might not have done if I'd been going home in free periods. As for the evenings, we did all go home and then go out again later but were reliant on lifts from parents as we lived scattered over a 10 mile radius from the college and no public transport at night. Once we started passing our driving tests it got easier, but we were out every weekend and some weeknights. I'm still friends with them all 40 years later. Where we live now it's very normal to travel 15 miles+ to college.

It might be worth asking them if they have any flexibility to offer attendance fewer days. One college near us is open 5 days but each student's course is condensed into 3 long days. Others have multiple classes in many subjects so if you ask very nicely with such a good reason, they might be able to arrange her timetable to give her days off. I don't think it's likely in a popular college, but it might be worth asking.

If not then my feeling is it's too far for many/most DC, but some will manage or even thrive. Sixth form college where they only gave to be onsite for lessons is a very different bag to full time school.

A bit different because my son is looking at vocational courses but there are two college campuses in my city, plus a few school sixth forms. I took my son to the two campuses for their open days but when he asked to look at colleges in other towns/cities I said no. I have various friends and relatives who have kids who have already gone through sixth form/college and the ones who ended up hating it are the ones who went further afield. And the commute had a lot to do with that. Busy public transport and yobbish behaviour from other teens. So I’ve told my son to stick to local.

The trouble with A Levels (if that’s what she’s looking at) is there’s so little leeway. There’s no try it for a term and see how she gets on, as transferring mid course is so tricky with exam boards and how intense most A Level teaching is.

The fact that it was organised over 2 days was a deliberate part of the timetabling so friend knew that was how it was structured when she applied. If the sixth form isn't making a specific issue to timetable in that way, I would assume it won't happen!

My DD went to a different sixth form and had scheduled lessons 5 days a week.

DD will be doing 80 minutes each way for 6th form. Having done 90 minutes each way for Primary and Secondary.

The main things we have learned:

• Length of commute is less important than ease of commute.
• You want multiple travel options - one school bus that leaves at a set time means they can't stay late for after school clubs etc. Much better having lots of public transport options.
• One long train journey is much better than three shorter changes.
• Minimal waiting time (it gets cold)

Next year she will have a 50 minute train and then 20 minutes on the tube (trains every 3 minutes) and 5 minutes walk each end. No waiting in the cold and rain. Guaranteed seat with wifi, power sockets and tables on the train in each direction.

DD uses the train time to do homework or to watch netflix on her ipad.

Never had a complaint about travel.

Our nearest options for secondary were all an hour away so that possibly makes a difference. For 6th form colleges, the nearest as the crow flies was going to be over 2 hours with 5 different changes.