Bristol to Stroud/Cheltenham
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Re: Bristol to Stroud/Cheltenham
I would echo what the others have said.
ds travels 1 hour door to door. That is 10 minutes on bike/car to the station, 30 minutes on the train, and 15 minutes walk to school.
It is a long day and he would love school to be closer. But we have a massive advantage
1. others do the same journey to the same school, which means he has friends from school in our town.
2. the train is public transport, so if he stays after school, or finishes early, or wants to go into town with a friend, or wants to meet up at the cinema etc, he can do all of those things and just get the next train home.
3. and this may sound daft, but 25 minutes of that travel is physical exercise. I know that ds is much less stressed when he gets exercise, and he would come home wired up if he had been sitting in a car or bus for that long
It is a long trek for parent evenings etc though.
I don't think we would have decided to do it if he was dependent on us for every lift too and from school outside of normal hours. There are plenty who do not get involved in after school stuff because of distance and school bus times. Although his school (Marling) is very good about putting as many clubs as possible in the lunch hour.
ds travels 1 hour door to door. That is 10 minutes on bike/car to the station, 30 minutes on the train, and 15 minutes walk to school.
It is a long day and he would love school to be closer. But we have a massive advantage
1. others do the same journey to the same school, which means he has friends from school in our town.
2. the train is public transport, so if he stays after school, or finishes early, or wants to go into town with a friend, or wants to meet up at the cinema etc, he can do all of those things and just get the next train home.
3. and this may sound daft, but 25 minutes of that travel is physical exercise. I know that ds is much less stressed when he gets exercise, and he would come home wired up if he had been sitting in a car or bus for that long
It is a long trek for parent evenings etc though.
I don't think we would have decided to do it if he was dependent on us for every lift too and from school outside of normal hours. There are plenty who do not get involved in after school stuff because of distance and school bus times. Although his school (Marling) is very good about putting as many clubs as possible in the lunch hour.
Re: Bristol to Stroud/Cheltenham
I have daughters at both Pate's and SHS. They are each very happy at their own school - I suspect neither would have been happy at the others school.
Pate's has a lot of sporty things after school - not good if you have to come some way to pick up. It also has house music, house drama and the school play, all of which require after school pickups - sometimes as many as three in a week. Music type clubs are generally within the school day.
SHS also has a variety of clubs after school, both sporty and other (orchestra for example).
Both schools have children who travel some distance. My longest traveller is 45 minutes from door to door, although it only takes 25 minutes when I have to pick her up from school.
My best friends daughter went to the local comprehensive and came out with something like 9 A* and 3 A at GCSE. She transferred to grammar at sixth form (her school didn't have a sixth form), achieved great results and is now at a Russell Group university.
Pate's has a lot of sporty things after school - not good if you have to come some way to pick up. It also has house music, house drama and the school play, all of which require after school pickups - sometimes as many as three in a week. Music type clubs are generally within the school day.
SHS also has a variety of clubs after school, both sporty and other (orchestra for example).
Both schools have children who travel some distance. My longest traveller is 45 minutes from door to door, although it only takes 25 minutes when I have to pick her up from school.
My best friends daughter went to the local comprehensive and came out with something like 9 A* and 3 A at GCSE. She transferred to grammar at sixth form (her school didn't have a sixth form), achieved great results and is now at a Russell Group university.
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Onemoretime
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Re: Bristol to Stroud/Cheltenham
I live in BS35 and have a DS at Pates and a DS at STR. Both travel by train. There are at least eight Pates students travel from Bristol Parkway and at least one to Denmark Road. The train leaves at 7.39 arriving Cheltenham 8.09. They then have a taxi to school and are usually there for 8.20. There are also students for Pates and the Gloucester grammars travelling by train from Chepstow with journey time of 30 mins to Gloucester and 40 to Cheltenham. They very much enjoy the social interaction on the train and the option to do homework/revision with friends on occasion. If they have after school clubs, they simply take a later train. It is a long journey and I was very apprehensive at first, but they do genuinely enjoy it and for us the local school would have meant a 40 minute bus journey anyway. I initially looked at Stroud, but could find no feasible public transport from here and found that when I drove, the time taken to get to STR/Pates was only around 5/10 minutes longer.
I can't obviously comment on SHS, but have found Pates to be a great fit for my eldest DS. He has loved it from day 1 and has thrived there. The pace of the work suits him and also being able to drop subjects he wasn't so keen in I year 9! My other DS is just as enthusiastic about his school and it is right for him. I think being happy at school is of paramount importance as they are then in an ideal position to learn and grow and thrive. I hope the above helps a little and wish and your DD all the best in your decision making.
I can't obviously comment on SHS, but have found Pates to be a great fit for my eldest DS. He has loved it from day 1 and has thrived there. The pace of the work suits him and also being able to drop subjects he wasn't so keen in I year 9! My other DS is just as enthusiastic about his school and it is right for him. I think being happy at school is of paramount importance as they are then in an ideal position to learn and grow and thrive. I hope the above helps a little and wish and your DD all the best in your decision making.
Re: Bristol to Stroud/Cheltenham
Hi,
Many thanks for all the responses. Lots of good sense on display. Much appreciated.
Many thanks for all the responses. Lots of good sense on display. Much appreciated.
Re: Bristol to Stroud/Cheltenham
My son is at Pate's and when there are events on in the evening like House Music, there are facilities for the kids to stay at school. We live close to Pate's and my son always offers our home up as a place of refuge for those living far away and I then take them all back to school in the evening. At the end of the day, if your child is struggling with the journey, you can always move them to a closer school, you wouldn't get the chance to get them into Pate's at a later date if you did things vice versa. Good luck.
