Hi everyone,

Please can someone advise is it easy to commute from Langley to QE grammar school. Do we have any parents on this website whose children go to QE from Langley or Slough ..



Cheers

The short answer to your question is that it would not be easy to commute to QE from Langley, it would be a nightmare and could take a couple of hours on occasion. There have been threads about this before, I'm sure, so if you look through the Berkshire section you may find them.
I certainly wouldn't advise a commute like that when you have excellent grammar schools on your doorstep. Any perceived difference in league table position will be cancelled out by not having to travel (& of course the slight difference in league tables is down the QE being highly selective in the first place).
Is this for 2019?

ETA: found a thread in the Hertfordshire/North London section

Nope, it would be a nightmare commute. No public transport options, probably a 60-80 min car journey each way in rush hour.....

No-one in their right mind would choose a journey like that for their 11 year old for 5/7 years. It would be unsustainable.

Plus if you live in Langley, there are FOUR Slough Grammar schools within 3 miles, three of which are within easy walking distance and also Burnham Grammar just up the train line (which you are out of cachement but in usual allocation distance for). How many do you need??

Lots of folk on the Slough/Bucks borders do, in fairness, put their kids in for both Bucks and Slough exams but adding in QE doesn’t sound realistic... . Please don’t follow this up with the usual rider of “but we’ll move more locally if we get a place” which is what a lot of exam tourists on here seem to post.

An effective way of deciding this is for you - the parent - to try it out for a few days; travel to and from QE in rush hour carrying bags weighed down by rugby kit, text books and so on and then see how you feel afterwards. Fresh and ready for a couple of hours' homework? Then ask yourself how an 11 year old boy would feel about it, and to manage this for a minimum of five years. That'll help you formulate an opinion.

Alternatively you could ask yourself exactly what was it that attracted you and your ds to QE and what you felt the school had which none of the other grammars in your area could offer. What impressions did you form when you visited the school? which teachers did you like? which departments impressed you?

And presumably you did check out house prices? and rental costs? www.rightmove.com is your friend.

I recently went to Langley (by accident; I got confused coming out of Heathrow ) but I do know the area as I went to the 6th form college there to resit my A levels. I was driving to/from Heathrow to take my dd for a school trip and was driving from Barnet. We were extremely fortunate that the traffic was amazing that day and it took just under an hour each way. However we woke up early and sat with google maps checking because it only takes one incident and suddenly it can be a 2 hour journey. To do that journey every school day for 5 or 7 years would be completely soul destroying.

Are you a Y6 parent who put QE first on your CAF and now wants to get out of having to move?

Or are you a Y5 parent interested in QE?

If you want your ds to go to QE you will need to uproot your whole family and move. DG

Nooo surely not? I simply refuse to believe any parent would inflict this on their own child.

Would you, OP?

Remember the map that a member produced one year of QE home locations (?for their DS's year at the time)? Amersham to Barnet, anyone?

_________________
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

A mere bagatelle, Toadmum, in the total eclipse of common sense which is the QE commute.

If you have a GS offer within walking distance, take it (assuming the school is one you think your DC will enjoy). If you are a year 5 parent, ignore QE completely, just as you’d ignore Manchester Grammar. There’s a good variety of grammar schools in the area, think about which suits your child best, visit them all.

Thinking about it, it’s possible this child didn’t pass the Slough test but got a better mark at QE. If that’s the case, OP, put your child on the waiting list for either Ditton Park or Langley Academy, in readiness for when you need to transfer back to a local school for your family’s sanity.

My friend’s year 7 child at Upton lost a schoolfriend within two terms because they commuted from Amersham to Slough every day and it was utterly exhausting for him.