Travel to St Bernards, Westcliff

[hettyfeather]

Can anyone help please! I am looking at the possibility of sending my daughter to St Bernards from the Chelmsford area - the school looks fab and an excellent alternative to SHSG due to the very high OOC scores required this year! However, the Consortium buses do not seem to run to St Bernards and I am struggling to find a safe travel route to get her here. Any ideas would be very much appreciated or if anyone already travels to St Bernards from the Chelmsford area and would like a travel companion to share costs etc.

[moved]

Have you looked at the local comps in Chelmsford. Some of them are excellent. Top sets in a Chelmsford comp are of a very high standard as a great many children have chosen to stay in Chelmsford for school, having not quite made the Chelmsford grammars. Chelmsford also has a good Catholic school.

[ToadMum]

For several reasons I cannot imagine wanting to send a child of mine all that way to St Bernard's, but depending on whereabouts in Chelmsford you are, the options would probably be the Regal Busways route 3 http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Hyde-Hall ... us-Service (07.00 from the bus station, meant to get to the stop nearest St.B's just after 08.20 but a cross-country route so possibly subject to delays in poor weather) or train Chelmsford - Shenfield - Southend Victoria, which is within walking distance (i.e. the reverse of the route taken by DC from Southend travelling to CCHS / KEGS). The X30 is a faster bus route, but the timings are not helpful.

There is a rail route via Romford - Upminster - Westcliff station, but seriously I can't see that it would be worth it

[hettyfeather]

Thank you ToadMum for taking the time to reply - I really appreciate it. I was simply exploring the possibility of sending my daughter to St Bernards as I believe it has an excellent reputation and is an all girls school which I am keen on. However, Moved has very kindly provided me with further information by PM and I am now ruling this school out due to a number of reasons. Ultimately I want my daughter to be happy and would only consider sending her to a school if she could get there safely and the journey was a pleasant one for her.

[purplegirl]

an all girls school which I am keen on

There are good comps in Chelmsford, but if you are keen on all girl schools, you could consider the Brentwood Ursuline; its got a good reputation, with an option for the brightest girls to do triple science.
They also admit up to 16 girls on musical ability.
From Chelmsford you need to change trains at Shenfield, then it's only one stop to Brentwood. The school is about a 5 minute walk from the station.
It might be worth looking at....

[ToadMum]

...and much as we would love to have your DD in Southend, very much easier to get to .

I took DS2 to the KEGS open morning last Wednesday. I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about - seriously, the idea was not that he would say that he would like to go there . However (and no offence here to KEGS), he did see sense when I pointed out that really, SHSB does have everything the might want - assuming that he passes! - without the excitement of three trains in each direction five days a week...

[Clarabelle]

St. Mary's in Lexden Road Colchester is a girls day school. Year 7 term fees are £3435 with bursaries & scholarships available.