How far away is your children's (future) secondary school?

[SammyRo]

I'm in the process of working out what school for secondary (probably from year 7). We'll be going private as no way would I do public with the schools round here. Our nearest one has a school bus, and its probably 25mins max. But other than that, I'm looking at possibly in the city, which will be at least a 45min train ride (they're still buidlnig the track to us) and then 10-15mins at the other end. Do you think that is too much for a 12year old student to be doing. DH does work in the city but he tends to leave here at 7am and not get home till 7pm, so probably not the best hours for doing the school run, and I'm not sure where I'm going to be working (in an ideal world, I'd get a job at a good school and the kids can come with me )

So, what how far do you and your children travel? What do you think is reasonable?

[Traveller]

My kids are younger so this decision is still a way off, but I would suggest 45 mins each way would be too much for a high school kid. 30 minutes would probably be the maximum we would consider, but I am very tempted by the public school which is probably only a 10 minute bike ride from our house. My gut tells me that if kids spend too long travelling too and from school then they will be overly tired to do homework, and perhaps resentful on missing out of clubs and activities which they could otherwise participate in if they wree schooled closer to home.

[Astrid]

We live outside of a rural city, so there will be no choice but for the girls to travel to high school. The one we are thinking of is on the opposite side of the city and is about 25-30 drive. I think they would have to leave 1/2 earlier if they were catching the bus as it connects to another for a swap. Don't know what time it gets to the school, but I would think about 1/4 to 9.

A lot of kids down here still do well at school and seem to do activities despite the travel. I currently work opposite the high school, so if I am still there it will be great. Otherwise if they need to do something after school, they can do it, then just get themselves over to DH's work to get home.

[*Ang*]

We will be moving to be close to the highschool we choose to send our kids to. I am insisting on no more then a 20 min journey each way whether by public transport or by car. I used to live 15 mins away from highschool by car but over an hour by bus! Stupid non-connecting buses! I hated it and wasted so much time, especially in the arvos when you have afterschool activities and you end up staying even later.

I wouldn't have a long commute if I could help it/choose it.

[hannanat]

It depends on traffic. Most mornings it takes me an hour to drive to school, but it's much faster coming home. In the afternoon when I pick them up, I get there in about 25 minutes some days and I usually get back home just before 4 (they finish at 3).

The school is a public school, but it's very good.

[RhiChiChi]

From memory we caught the bus to our closest highschool and it was about 40 mins (b/c of all the stops). It wasn't that long really - you chat to friends or do homework/read during that time

Depends where we send our DD but it will be no more than 10 mins each way by car. I don't think a bus service if offered from where we live

[Miss.September]

The school we want to send DD to is currently just around the corner, but we're moving and I figure it'll be about 30 mins car drive each way.

My school route when I was at high school was the longest the school had and was 45 minutes each way (including stops). It was an early start - we had to be at the bus stop by 8am for a 9am school start, and we didn't get back to the bus stop of an afternoon until about 4.15pm. We had a 20 minute drive home from there. The afternoon was the killer. By the time we got home, got ourselves out of uniform and settled for homework, it was pretty much dinner time (and then there were the chores of setting the table, clearing the table, doing dishes before we could hit the homework again).

[Pandora]

DS goes to a p-12 that's 20 mins away.
The other secondary school I like for him (a l i a college) is a good hour by public transport

[*TripleJ*]

i used to catch the bus and it was an hour each way but only 20 mins by car

[RainbowBrite]

the high school my older two go to is about 5min drive away but it takes about 15-20min by bus because it goes the round about way with stops.

[Smoke Jaguar]

We're about 15 minute drive from ours, but the bus service picks up the 'rural' kids at the end of our road, so, should one of ours end up going to that school, it's not so far. I'm thinking our kids won't go to that school, though, and the bus trip will take about 45 mins to the one I'm thinking about for now (it's 7 years off!).
I have a GF who lives in Wandin and her son really wanted to go to Scotch, because he really wants to be a doctor and his dad went there (not sure on the connection, he feels he'll have a better chance at it this way), so they either drive him into a bus stop, or he gets driven to another student's house closer into town. They were hoping he wouldn't last out the first year of it, but he loves it and is sticking with it!

[Trillian]

I would suggest 45 mins each way would be too much for a high school kid.

No way! It's not that long. We live 42km out of town, but because we have a large bus run, they are on the bus for an hour and they cope fine with it - and I'm talking from the very start of school. I don't think travelling that far is a problem at all.

[Traveller]

It's different for country kids I suppose. I had to travel about 30 minutes home from high school and I hated it but then I didn't move to the country until I was 14 so it was a massive change for me, I didn't grow up with it like most of the country kids who never minded the bus trip.

I think the main thing is if it's a good school and they are happy there then they won't mind the trip