Hello All

Has anyone got offer from Skinners grammar school in Tunbridge Wells. Ideally I am looking for travel options/car pooling for my DS from Croydon. Any information regarding this is highly appreciated.
We are also waiting for local grammar school. But meanwhile looking for the travel options for the school my DS has been offered.

Thanks in advance for all your information.

Arrive by 30/04/2018 08:20
1 h 10 min 07:08 - 08:18

07:08 from East Croydon
Walking duration 0 min
07:08 East Croydon
(Platform 3)
Southern towards Tonbridge
07:46 Penshurst

Walk
190 ft (1 min)
07:51 Railway Station
233 towards Tunbridge Wells
08:18 The Skinners' School

You could ask the school to pass your details to the other parents sending their DSs to the school from your area, or at least along the same route?

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

Thanks ToadMum for your quick and detailed reply. Yes we have also planned the same route.
Sure I am going to ask school now.
Just wondering whether 1 hr 10 min journey is too much for the 11 year old child?
ToadMum can you please share your experience regarding the travel time of 1 hr 15 mins?

I think that the journey is rather long - my real concern however would be if trains are delayed or cancelled and connections are not made. That could increase journey time considerably and be stressful for your son. Also much if not all of the route is on Southern which as you may be aware have provided a dreadful service over the last year or so. You might want to check out whether the Industrial Action has been resolved.

Have you also checked what the trains are like on say a Saturday when your son may be involved in sports' fixtures and may need to be at school early in the morning? Or in the evenings when he may have to stay at school for extra curricular activities or if he comes back late from a school trip? Also will you be able to get to school for parent teacher consultations etc etc. Lots to think about.

I'm afraid ours all attend / have attended schools less than five miles from home, so whereas the journey time has never been less than one sixth of the time of the one that you are contemplating for your DS, the only time they have taken that long to get home is when stopping off somewhere on the way for social reasons.

I would certainly echo Twinkle's concerns (although if you really must send your DC 30-odd miles away for school, this looks - on paper at least, to be one of the least complicated journeys I've looked at on here) - if you live in Croydon, you can't have been unaware of the industrial action which has caused so much disruption to passengers' lives in the recent past. Also, it is the parents' responsibility to get their DC to school in a timely manner. I have no experience of Skinners, but DD's previous school, although generally sympathetic when major transport failure occurred, made it very clear that, for example, difficulty of journey / distance would be no barrier to being given after school detention - and one of the reasons for getting one of those was a given number of unauthorised 'lates' .

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

I would point out that it isn't only 1 hr and ten minutes, it is only that if you live on the platform. You generally have to arrive at the station a few minutes before departure to get through barriers and down onto platforms. You also have the journey from your home to the station.

The timetables for Southern and Southeastern and Thameslink is being turned on their heads from 20th May, so do check journey options after that date as it does look at a glance some trains are ceasing to run from Croydon that may have otherwise been relied on. I just checked and it looks like before 20th May there are direct trains from Croydon from Penshurst at that time of day, but after 20th May there are not. Despite responding to the consultation on the draft timetables in our areas the powers that be have been less than sympathetic as what difference is it to them if hundreds of children going out of London have to get an earlier train? It doesn't matter to them as these trains are not as busy as the commuter ones upto London. Some of DD's classmates at a school on the Southeastern network are looking at horrible start times when previously they had a quite easy journey. Fortunately DD can get the local bus, or at a push walk for half an hour.

Luckyparent I really would urge you to investigate the travel options very carefully, everything is very reliant on all the elements working perfectly and there being no blips. There's very little wriggle room or alternatives if something doesn't work properly. Have you visited Penshurst station? I don't know for certain but I'm not sure Penshurst station is even staffed as it is a very small rural station. Please do find these things out and have an alternative plan in place should something be cancelled, you really don't want your DS stranded in Penshurst on a wet and dark November afternoon.

On the plus side the 231 bus does go up to Bennett memorial school which is opposite skinners' so he will be saved the 15 minute walk from TW station to school.

I have two DS at skinners' and neither of them have known a boy come in from Croydon but it may be different this year.

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Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !

Thanks doodles for your reply.
I am planning to go myself via Penshurst during school time just to check everything. This is not everyday thing. My husband is planning to drop him to school on some days in a week. We are eventually planning to move to Kent in near future. This travel is just for some time we are looking for.

Thanks everyone for your replies. As I have replied to doodles, this is just a temporary travel option we are looking for. We are exploring various options on rent/buy house around school area.

At the same time, I am also working on various travel options, just in case if we can't move to the school area by Sep 2018.
Thanks again everyone for sharing your views.

Just to emphasise that temporary option is not going to be 1 hour and ten minutes with the new timetable, it will be quite a bit more. Good luck with your Sutton options or the move.