Secondary school commute?

[Animalover]

Hi,

For a top academic secondary school (A*-A %96), how many minutes of door-to-door travel do you think is worth it for your child?

I think that’s ok. The 10-15 minute walk - there will be lots of other kids from that school doing the same so quite sociable.

Do consider backup options for train strikes/delays.

For a top academic secondary school (A-A %96),*

A state school with 96% getting As? Surely it’s selective?

OP never said it was state

Half hour walk or they’re not going there.

loads of dc don’t live within 30 mins of a secondary though.

@minipie you are correct. Well if it’s a highly selective private or grammar lots of dc will do long journeys.

“5 minutes walk to station 25 minutes on train and 10-15 mins walk to school?”

That sounds OK. Does the school have lockers to leave instruments/PE kit? That would make a difference.

Rather doable and not uncommon, especially as there are likely to be other students taking the same train (from same or other stations along the line) or at least walking from the station.

An hour.

A school with results like that is almost certainly because all the students are naturally very high ability / high achievers. Not because of any magical element in the actual education on offer.

They will do well in any competent school with a critical mass of bright peers.

Exhaustion, wasting so much time travelling and having their friends live miles away could detract.

We set a max 40 min commute for our dcs. But we chose our house so that we'd have a decent choice of schools (5+ top academic schools) within that limit. So it hasn't restricted their choice, though there are some schools which are super academic which are outside of that limit, but the difference between those and the more local ones is marginal, and the ethos/pastoral care in those schools isn't great. I think it's difficult when there aren't top schools nearby and I wouldn't want to send my dc to a middling school for the sake of avoiding a commute, but I'd consider relocating to make life easier for them.

An easy commute (walking, or easy and regular public transport) opens up so many advantages in terms of time for socialising, extracurriculars and general wellbeing. As adults DH and I also have short work commutes (under 25 mins) so it's something we have prioritisedd for our own lives.

If it’s that good, it’s likely to be popular and if you live too far away you won’t get a place anyway (going off normal admissions policies).

Many in both my DCs’ schools travel for a lot longer than this. We live within walking distance, however, if we didn’t then I’d definitely think a long commute was worth it for both schools.

I'm kind of assuming it is a selective school with those results – so either private and no catchment or state grammar and very big catchment.

My state grammar had a catchment of about 10 miles in one direction and 15 in the other.

My sons commute is 1.5 hours each way. He's shattered, but he has SEN and it is the only school that would accept his EHCP. So for very different reasons, obviously we aren't interested in academics, I just wish we had closer viable options, but we don't, so we have to make it work.

I had a 70 minute journey. 10 minute walk and an hour's bus ride. It was fine, dark in the winter but not tiring.

My state grammar had a catchment of about 10 miles in one direction and 15 in the other.

I don't think mine took anyone from outside the borough, back when every borough had at least one grammar school. I lived a 20 min walk away. My mother wanted me to try for the more prestigious girls' school a bus ride and a walk away, but I wanted to go to the local school and have local friends.

That's a better experience than mine for sure. Well done for carrying your point and being able to stay local.

Bear in mind that although a school may have better results on paper, once you control for socioeconomic factors and entrance test, the advantage may be much less than you think. There's some evidence, for example, that state schools actually get better or equal GCSE results than private, once you control for socioeconomic differences.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/nov/21/private-and-state-school-pupils-gcse-results-are-now-the-same-study-finds
Does this school get great results because of the intake or because of the school?
But to answer your question, I did an hour's commute as a child, and though I 'coped', it was miserable and not something I would chose for my child. We didn't look at any schools further than half an hour away. We're lucky in that we live 20 minutes away from our top choice.

Personally I wouldn't want my kids to be commuting more than 30 mins. Imagine a shattered 11/12 year old coming out of school with a load of homework - which I'm sure they will have if this is such a desirable school with top results - and having 60-90 mins travel before they get home. They'll be shattered. I don't want to commute that long to a job, I wouldn't expect a child to do it. Also remember this will also impact you when you have to attend parents evenings, meetings, sports fixtures, performances, school trips. Also to consider, should your child be unfortunate enough to receive a detention, can they still get home, will they be then in the rush hour, will you have to collect them?

"lots of people do it" is not a reason to make your own children do it.

This commute in practice will be an hour I suspect, by the time you've factored in delays and having to allow a few minutes contingency time. Will they routinely get a seat? I think that makes a difference.

I don't think it's a question to be considered in isolation - you need to consider the whole package including alternatives. If a good alternative has less stellar results, but involves 30 minutes less commute, that's an extra hour a day that could be spent doing something useful (in which I include downtime).

It is difficult to tell when they are 10, how they are going to turn out and be like at 13/14/15.
For some kids, it is good that they have a bit of a commute, stay busy, have lots of extracurricular to do at school, come home exhausted but happy. For others, it is overwhelming and they need time to decompress and read and make things and cook etc and do end up using their time wisely. For yet others, if they are home at 3pm and underchallenged they end up addicted to video games and social media and get themselves in a mess, especially if parents are working full time/out of the house and cannot supervise.
Any parent is choosing and selecting based on imperfect information and can just go ahead in good faith.
DD has friends from primary whose parents were too pushy and went for far away grammars for borderline kids and they have no changed back to local comps and got less than stellar GCSEs. Yet others who were bright but not pushy enough parents are now on the weed and in all sorts of trouble.

Depends on the situation. If there are good local schools then I would not bother. If they are tragic then up to 45 min

For me it would depend largely on whether there was an alternative option closer to home where at least 30 pupils a year were getting A/A*/8/9 in core subjects. That was my benchmark for whether there would be good enough teaching and a large enough peer group of academically-minded peers. I cared that DD would be able to get top grades, not whether 96% of her peers would be able to do likewise.
A longer commute means less time for homework, hobbies (eg music practice). And if there is a subject which isn't quite as well taught, the saving on commuting costs would help towards a bit of tuition.

The %A*-A is just an indicator of the nature of the typical child attending and hence the goodness of fit - it's not a predictor of your own child's grades, and a higher % is not necessarily better for every child. So 96% might suggest a perfect fit for a very academic child currently lacking similar peers and bored at the level of the work at their current school, but could be a bad fit for someone a bit less academic (but presumably still bright enough to have got in) who really struggles to not be near the top of their class and finds that demotivating.
If you have one of those super-bright children then an hour commute might well be worth it - and many kids love their school bus with their friends. However, if public transport then time isn't the only factor: my own current 1 hour commute is much less tiring and more reliable than a previous 45 min one. The key is changes: 2+ buses or trains is too many I think (2 tube lines probably ok as easy changes).
I think it also depends a lot on extracurriculars - if your child does a lot in the evenings outside school then a longer journey will make that harder. But equally, extracurriculars at school might involve later long journeys home, or a need for additional trips at the weekend.