Travelling to school? How?

[Animalover]

Hello,

My daughter has an offer from a really good secondary school (top 10 in the UK), but unfortunately it is not local. We have a few travel options:

1. Driving:
I could drive her, but it would take about 45–70 minutes depending on traffic. We would need to leave home around 7:30–7:40 am.

2. School bus:
She would need to walk about 15 minutes to the school bus stop and catch it around 7:20 am.

3. Train:
She could take one overground train for about 25 minutes, then walk 10–12 minutes to the school. We live about 3 minutes from the train station, so she would leave home around 7:45 am.

Driving: It would be very hard for me to do this every day — it would mean almost 4 hours of driving per day for the school run.

School bus: It is quite an early start, and I am also worried about her walking to the bus stop in winter when it will still be dark. The road is quiet and there are no shops around, just houses.

Train: The start time is not too early, but she will only be 11 years old. Do you think this is okay? At the open day they said some children do this, but we have never experienced it so I’m not sure. If she uses the train, how long should I accompany her before letting her travel alone?

My daughter worked so hard for this school so trying to find the best option! Please share your ideas!

Thank you!

School buses are not fun places for long periods of time, and they are often given the crappy coaches!

When you say the overground do you mean something like the Mildmay line?

It would help if you told which school or at least the area. If you are being so snobbish about the school I would think Henrietta Barnett or something like that.

top 10, who cares?
Just checked my kids school and it's between 130/140 (not going to say it exactly) and it's a great school.

what matters is will you child be happy there? do you get a good feel for the school - I chose Good over outstanding as I had a better feel and the school is now Outstanding anyway

Most London trains are fairly reliable from when I commuted. The odd one is cancelled/delayed but generally not. I agree with pp you can do homework on train. Can’t on bus.

My three DDs went to a non super selective grammar. Twenty minutes half-run to station (stroll - 1/2 hour, full run - 15 minutes), half an hour train, then 20 minutes walk the other end.

They just got on with it. Very occasionally they were frustrated when stuck on a platform for a couple of hours (rail replacement bus? What rail replacement bus?).

Just to add, I think this really helped DD1 who commutes in London now - because actually her travel time is shorter than at school.

Ours is cancelled at least once a week. Or significantly delayed. Plan B and C is always needed.