anotherdad wrote:
The basis is the hundreds of questions asked here every year by parents who have a very different attitude to yours. Going for the best schools you can with the easiest commute possible is what the majority do and is perfectly sensible. The people piggys are referring to are only interested in what they perceive to be the best schools, regardless of the commute. That's why there are questions about which schools have the best GCSE/A-level and even Oxbridge statistics, from parents of 10 year olds. That's why in a region like Bucks, we see lots of questions every year about how to obtain a grammar place from many miles away, even when the poster has good and outstanding options in their local area. There is undoubtedly a faction for whom the perceived status of their chosen school is more important than the overall experience their child will have, including travel.
I think though that this is largely a south-east problem and particularly one where there are grammar schools. I have seen this year for the first time really an almost-hysteria developing in some areas of this forum where parents are prepared to countenance all kinds of ludicrous journeys/house moves etc for the sake of a school. In some communities the idea seems to have taken hold that grammar schools are fundamentally different from 'normal' schools and that a child's life chances will be dashed forever unless a place is secured in one of them. If the poor kid then fails to get a place, the parents are looking for massive bursaries to get them into private schools, despite there being no evidence that these places are generally any better than the 'normal' schools they are desperate to avoid. I am not sure you are right that it is about showing off or status (though don't know Bucks well enough to be sure) but more about the horrors of having to go to school with less intelligent children or those who have no manners and smell (or whatever it is that people think goes on in ordinary schools). This forum isn't typical at all of UK society and you only need to see which areas are always buzzing and which have almost nothing going on to see why I think it is largely, though not exclusively, centred around the London commuter belt.
Where I live in Gloucestershire we have opt-in grammars and while there is a minority of grammar-fixated parents, it really doesn't seem to be the same here as it is down around the M25. In fact the madness here seems more to come from those trying to gain access to the schools from afar, believing erroneously imho that going to a grammar school in Gloucester is somehow better than a comprehensive in, say, Bristol, even if that involves 4 hours of travel every day.
And outside our area, for example where I did my teacher training and early experience (north east), no one I met would dream of commuting their child for miles and hours a day. But there aren't any grammar schools there.
Disclosure: journey time from home to school for my remaining school child = walk, cycle or a lift to bus stop (12-15 mins walk, 5-7 mins cycle or 3 mins car), bus journey around 20 mins depending on traffic. Gets to school very early though (810-15 for am 830 start) so spends time socialising once there.