London to Colchester.
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Re: London to Colchester.
Congratulations on your DC's offer!mA swapping forum sounds good to me!eleven wrote:Perhaps we should start a swapping forum. We are willing to swap for ChCHS.lol
On a serious note final decision is yet to be made as other schools have contacted us. However, my heart tells me ColCHS.
I am on the other side of London and have no personal experience/view of the area you are considering, albeit that I have on occasion had to do a similar commute...
I do understand your situation, having been faced ourselves with dire local options, a 'distant' grammar (although in our case only 7 miles away and one bus ride door to door...but then this is London!) and indie.
DD1 is now in year 10 and so we can view our decision with the benefit of hindsight and experience of how secondary school pans out. We also had a DD2, 11plussing 2 years later. DD1 was familiar with the area of the grammar as we/she regularly shopped there or played in Richmond Park which was en route.
Only you can decide what is best for your family. However, I cannot echo strongly enough the advice to try the journey repeatedly at the times and in the circumstances under which your DC would be doing it, at least once getting DC to do it alone. If you are not prepared to let them do it alone now, then it is not a journey they should be doing daily for the next 7 years from September.
Ignore their comments about whether it is doable, they are happy etc, DC are keen to please and do not want to be a source of stress and are children, and thus not yet equipped to make a fully informed, logical decision about what is right in this instance.
Add 50% to whatever any transport company tells you about travel time and consider security and loneliness issues at every interchange on top of that.
As you say, secondary education is about more than the classroom, so consider that carefully, DC's future 'young adulthood' is about so much more, do you really want that 'more' to be commuting,? Is this a commute you would truly gladly do?
I have my own view on what I would do with the benefit of hindsight, but this is your decision. I really hope some of your other options are nearer and materialise, as the head/heart compromise might be easier if they do. I wish you good luck.
mad?
Re: London to Colchester.
I seem to remember a post about places in year 9. Perhaps it might be possible for your DD to spend another 2 years at indie, then get a transfer to GS. That way she would be older and better able to cope with the journey.
Re: London to Colchester.
Hi,
Looks like you made up your mind. Just a suggestion, if you are decided to send her to colchester everyday, it is better to find some good family who take exchange students and at least go from there monday to friday and be with you people on the weekends. Better than putting through the ordeal of travel everyday.
Looks like you made up your mind. Just a suggestion, if you are decided to send her to colchester everyday, it is better to find some good family who take exchange students and at least go from there monday to friday and be with you people on the weekends. Better than putting through the ordeal of travel everyday.
Re: London to Colchester.
Thanks everyone for your contribution. Maybe I am old school.
My early school experience.....6am woken up by house prefect or house master, make the bed and say the lords prayer, 6.05 morning duties/exercise 2 laps of the school, 6.30 shower, uniform and inspection, 7.00 refectory for breakfast, 7:15 back to the dormitory, pack your bags/books, 7.30 assembly/inspection and 8.00 classes begin.
DDs experience (hopefully) 6.30 wake up, shower/uniform, 7.00 in the car/breakfast on the go, 7.30 on the school bus, 8.35 arrive at school. Is this stress or am I too old school.
I will taken all what is on here into consideration before final decision.
I like the idea of postponing till year 9, but will the school agree to this?
My early school experience.....6am woken up by house prefect or house master, make the bed and say the lords prayer, 6.05 morning duties/exercise 2 laps of the school, 6.30 shower, uniform and inspection, 7.00 refectory for breakfast, 7:15 back to the dormitory, pack your bags/books, 7.30 assembly/inspection and 8.00 classes begin.
DDs experience (hopefully) 6.30 wake up, shower/uniform, 7.00 in the car/breakfast on the go, 7.30 on the school bus, 8.35 arrive at school. Is this stress or am I too old school.
I will taken all what is on here into consideration before final decision.
I like the idea of postponing till year 9, but will the school agree to this?
Re: London to Colchester.
Only CRGS (boys grammar in Colchester) take four students in Year 9. This does not apply to the girls' grammar in Colchester.teri wrote:I seem to remember a post about places in year 9. Perhaps it might be possible for your DD to spend another 2 years at indie, then get a transfer to GS. That way she would be older and better able to cope with the journey.
Re: London to Colchester.
I am new to this forum and i have never contributed but i have felt compelled to do so. I can understand the genuine concern from some parents and on the other hand I cant help but feel some parents believe your DD's place belongs to their child.
My DD was in a similar situation and we decided to send her to HBS and from were we live the journey is an hr and a half. We met a lot of resistance even from family members not to send her and we did anyway as we thought it was the best for her. We supported her in every way for the first term but in the end we did not need to as she had made a lot of friends and some of them live further than us.
I have a friend whose DD goes to CoCHS and she takes a school bus from harwich which is closer to london(do a route planner from your home) at around 7am and is back by 5pm. You can consider to drive her there if possible, then she is comfortable and will not be too tired. Sometimes as parents we need to put ourselves in other peoples shoes because we donot know the full extent of circumstances. If you are coming from an area were comprehensive schools are almost the lowest in the league table in the country then I am afraid its not an option. I have known of families who have sent children to indies even though they cannot afford because they cannot face the local schools.
Sometimes as parents we do worry more than we need to and I find children from london are more resilient as they travel long distances from a very young age. I also feel children from indi find it easier to cope with certain situations (talking from experience) due to the exposure they have experienced.
As for after school activities, some are done at lunch time and you might consider to pick her up the day she is staying late.Family lives are different, my DD has a lot of friends that she speak to over the phone at weekend but doesnot do sleepover as we donot believe in them and I wouldnt say she is not happy because thats how we have brought her up from a young age.
I know some parents will not agree with me but I feel you need to do what you feel is best for you and your family. Everyone has different backgrounds and they will not remain 11. I suggest you contact the school for the bus routes and take it from there.
My DD was in a similar situation and we decided to send her to HBS and from were we live the journey is an hr and a half. We met a lot of resistance even from family members not to send her and we did anyway as we thought it was the best for her. We supported her in every way for the first term but in the end we did not need to as she had made a lot of friends and some of them live further than us.
I have a friend whose DD goes to CoCHS and she takes a school bus from harwich which is closer to london(do a route planner from your home) at around 7am and is back by 5pm. You can consider to drive her there if possible, then she is comfortable and will not be too tired. Sometimes as parents we need to put ourselves in other peoples shoes because we donot know the full extent of circumstances. If you are coming from an area were comprehensive schools are almost the lowest in the league table in the country then I am afraid its not an option. I have known of families who have sent children to indies even though they cannot afford because they cannot face the local schools.
Sometimes as parents we do worry more than we need to and I find children from london are more resilient as they travel long distances from a very young age. I also feel children from indi find it easier to cope with certain situations (talking from experience) due to the exposure they have experienced.
As for after school activities, some are done at lunch time and you might consider to pick her up the day she is staying late.Family lives are different, my DD has a lot of friends that she speak to over the phone at weekend but doesnot do sleepover as we donot believe in them and I wouldnt say she is not happy because thats how we have brought her up from a young age.
I know some parents will not agree with me but I feel you need to do what you feel is best for you and your family. Everyone has different backgrounds and they will not remain 11. I suggest you contact the school for the bus routes and take it from there.
Re: London to Colchester.
Have I misunderstood - I thought you were thinking about trains?7.30 on the school bus, 8.35 arrive at school
If so school time traffic in Colchester is diabolical! School finishes at 3:35pm DD gets the bus from the school grounds (65) that passes the station. She rarely gets to the station before 4:10. As I said before she would have to be at the station by 8am to get to registration on time in the morning.
I live in Colchester and my children have to be on a bus by 7:45 to get to school on time!
Last edited by Minesatea on Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: London to Colchester.
So, your school experience, 2 hours before classes start in a safe and nurturing environment where all needs are catered for. DC, 2 (at best) hours in an uncontrolled changing environment, largely in isolation or amongst commuters with the stress of 'will I be late' layered on top.eleven wrote:My early school experience.....6am woken up by house prefect or house master, make the bed and say the lords prayer, 6.05 morning duties/exercise 2 laps of the school, 6.30 shower, uniform and inspection, 7.00 refectory for breakfast, 7:15 back to the dormitory, pack your bags/books, 7.30 assembly/inspection and 8.00 classes begin.
DDs experience (hopefully) 6.30 wake up, shower/uniform, 7.00 in the car/breakfast on the go, 7.30 on the school bus, 8.35 arrive at school. Is this stress or am I too old school.
I will taken all what is on here into consideration before final decision.
I like the idea of postponing till year 9, but will the school agree to this?
And then the way home. Assuming your DC does not participate in everything that the school offers then 2 hours back again. But let's hope that DC wants to be involved, engages with the school community and is socially active with peers. When DC's friends are doing homework. participating in after school activities and socialising DC will be regretfully on the train. This is completely different from the 'old school' environment of your experience. Imagine if you had been removed from the environment you were schooled in at 4pm every day whilst everyone else remained. Add to that a 2 hour (ok 1 hour 15 min) journey home and then imagine doing homework. The two are not comparable in any way.
Of course it depends on your own values and aspirations, and if you are happy for DC not to participate in school and social life or it is against your values in some way to let your DC get involved with school social life then just consider the commute and make your decision. One thing though, an 11 hour day (with no activities )which involves 3 hours commuting and then homework is immensely more stressful and complicated than the most extensive 6am-8pm boarding routine
mad?
Re: London to Colchester.
I repeat. What about rehearsals, clubs, detentions, friends?
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Re: London to Colchester.
Welcome to the forum! A lot of the posters advising against the journey have been posting for quite some time and from what I know of what they've said on other threads, they either already have a place at CoCHS for their daughter, only have sons or have no children transferring to secondary school in September this year. I don't doubt that their posts are genuinely motivated by concern for the OP's child. Many of us already have a child at school in Colchester and so understand the travelling issues beyond that which can be gleaned from bus and train timetables. I think it is unfounded and unnecessary to suggest that those who posted are chasing the OP's place.yummy3 wrote:I am new to this forum and i have never contributed but i have felt compelled to do so. I can understand the genuine concern from some parents and on the other hand I cant help but feel some parents believe your DD's place belongs to their child.