How far will you travel for a good primary school place?

evansmummy

Hello,

Long story short -
We were moving 30 mins away from current home and as all was going well we applied for school in new area.
House sale falls through day before exchange :eek:
School place comes through miraculously for other area. The school is a great village school but until we resell our house it'll be at least a 30 min commute each way.
I'm happy with the outcome but my hubby is Mr Negative and all he keeps going on about is how sick of travelling I'll get, what if the car breaks etc etc.

So do you think a 30 min car drive is being stupid?

tyllwyd

Now that the sale has fallen through, have you given up the idea of moving or do you plan to move in the next few years if you can? What are the schools like near your current house?

I'm sure that there are lots of people who do commute 30 mins for school, but I don't think you should underestimate it - it will be a pain. What will it be like at rush hour? Also, most of his/her school friends will live near the school, so having someone round for tea will be more difficult.

Spendless

Do you intend moving to the new schools area as and when you are able to? 30 mins to school means 2 hrs driving per week, assumming you go home after dropping off. Does this work out with any job you do, will it have an impact if you are looking for work? What school year are you talking about? If for example your child is currently in yr 5 and you are going to have to make an application for Secondary school this Autumn, is it likely you'd get a place if you are still living 30 mins away?

balletshoes

my work colleague's child has been offered a place at a primary school which is easily 30 minutes away from home by bus, and probably at school start time about 20 minutes drive away by car. He's going to see the school (as it wasn't on their preference list at all, they didn't get a place at any of those) and if they like it, they are going to accept the place and work around it (his wife doesn't drive so either he will drive his daughter to school and wife will pick up by bus, or vice versa). I was shocked to be honest that they were offered this school - its actually the 9th nearest primary school to their home, in the same LEA (they could have applied for schools in the city LEA but they didn't, and those would have been a lot closer than the school they've been allocated).

OP if you've factored in the 30 minute commute each day, and you're happy with it, I don't see that as a barrier. Lots of folk commute for a lot longer each day for work, so doing it for school I don't think is much different.

bylromarha

We live a 15 min drive away from our kids school, and having friends round can be problematic.

It isn't a biggy, but if your little one is a sociable bean, then it may get to be hard work.

Other than that, I see no probs with it myself assuming long term goal would be to move to that area in the next 18 months. If you are no longer looking to move to the area nay time soon, I'd rethink about a school closer to home.

balletshoes

good point there bylromarha, but if its a village school maybe there will be a few kids from outlying areas who go to it, and so are in the same situation, a car ride away from school.
I went to a village school, lots of small farms around, and because of the distances between them, we also didn't really have play-dates with school classmates, we played with the kids on our farm/next one. I never really thought about it, we still played out all the time, just not with our classmates .

bylromarha

Whereas my 2 go to a school in the town next to our city. So all their friends are within walking distance of each other...except us.

evansmummy

Thanks for your thoughts guys.
With response to questions -
Firstly this is for my almost 5 year old sons primary school place.
Secondly I'm not working as I also have a 3 year old so I'm waiting to start work after both kids are in school full time.

Before receiving the school place we were thinking of staying put in our house and area short term at last but now we've got that school it's reignited my want to move.

The good schools by us, we've already been told by the council, are full so we'd be on waitlists, and although we'd have a strong case to get an appeal due to a change of circumstances I don't have much hope of getting into one.
The two school are us are ok but highly over subscribed and any of the others I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

We would move at some point anyway as the secondary school around here are horrenously bad.

I haven't really thought about playdates to be really honest. He's at nursery now and we haven't really got that culture there so it hadn't crossed my mind. Saying that we tend to be outdoorsy types so would rather meet up for playdates at the park.

pinkclouds

evansmummy wrote: »

Firstly this is for my almost 5 year old sons primary school place.
Secondly I'm not working as I also have a 3 year old so I'm waiting to start work after both kids are in school full time.

I reckon it depends on where your toddler goes to nursery and whether both kids will go to the same primary school. My school run is 15 minutes (one way), so, just for school, I spend at least an hour in the car every weekday. My toddler also goes to a nursery school, two mornings a week, so I have to do another run for him at lunchtimes. It is a bit of a drag but it's not like I wouldn't have to get up, get the kids ready and so on, even if they went to a local school around the corner or if they were homeschooled.

The first week of school and then the first week after each "long" holiday is a tiny shock to the system as you get into routine but after that it's fine. Just remember to factor in your potential journeys to nursery and to work - it's unsustainable if you have to travel in two or three different directions everyday.

When I was growing up, kids sometimes travelled considerable distances for secondary school if they lived in a village without a secondary school or if they wanted to go to a private school. In some cases, that meant getting on a bus at 6 am. It's not fun but if it's the best choice then you just get on with it.

19lottie82

if you don't work and can afford the petrol then go for it if, you think the benefits will outweigh the hassle.

main problems I can see are

- as others have mentioned, could be problematic if ur LO wants to sociaise with schoolmates at weekends / after school

- the situation may be do able at the moment, but it's a diff story commiting yourself to it for 7 years!

evansmummy

19lottie82 wrote: »

if you don't work and can afford the petrol then go for it if, you think the benefits will outweigh the hassle.

main problems I can see are

- as others have mentioned, could be problematic if ur LO wants to sociaise with schoolmates at weekends / after school

- the situation may be do able at the moment, but it's a diff story commiting yourself to it for 7 years!

It'll only be a short term thing having to travel as we would definately be moving over that way. It was the intention anyway it's just our house sale fell through.
We have a viewing on our house tomorrow so if that goes well it might not even be for a long time away. Fingers crossed!!

Thanks for everyones input :T