How far to travel?

[Mrs Sinatra]

We live 25 mins door to door from the grammar school we're considering for our child, on mostly low-traffic roads. She'd need to get the bus, however, most mornings, which I think is about 45 mins.

I don't *think* this is too far, but am I being naive? She's our eldest so we have no concept of what secondary school is like (after school clubs etc).

Any thoughts welcome. Thank you.

[kenyancowgirl]

Hello - obviously, the shorter the school journey the better and well done you for considering all the angles - far too often we see people on here considering ridiculous journeys for their children, in my opinion. We live 10 miles ish from our GS - it is about 20 minutes by car (without horrendous traffic) and about 40 minutes for the bus as we are rural so it goes round the villages - this is completely fine - the way the buses work here means that any after school club results in a car pick up (as they can only use their pass on one bus and the bus service is pretty rubbish to our village after that!) so it does mean a 40 minute round trip but, again, I am fine with that. Using the bus means the day is 8-5 but the journey seems to be a time to catch up with friends!

[Snowdrops]

That length/time of journey is fine, it's about what my dd's been doing for the last five years. You may find she's very tired at first, but that's down to the longer and very different day generally, not just the bus journey, they very soon get used to it!

[Yamin151]

That length/time of journey is fine, it's about what my dd's been doing for the last five years. You may find she's very tired at first, but that's down to the longer and very different day generally, not just the bus journey, they very soon get used to it!

How lovely and encouraging, thank you snowdrops

[Mrs Sinatra]

Thanks all. I think I made a mistake though, because I've just looked and there only looks like one bus she can get and it takes 1hr 10 mins. Hmmm, that's rather longer than I thought but, like you Kenyancowgirl, we are quite rural so we have to double back to go into town to get the bus and then the bus goes a longer way round. If it went from nearer our front door.... How do you find out about buses btw? Is there a more reliable way than putting it into Google??

[hermanmunster]

is there anyone else locally who goes to the school ? Might be worth checking on how they travel - I only suggest that as the "school" buses in our local area don't appear on timetables online - if you rely on those the journeys look worse and often don't go near the school!

[Mrs Sinatra]

Thanks Hermanmunster. I don't think so, but I'll ask around.

[ToadMum]

I noticed that you had posted about the CSSE test in another thread - which of the schools are you aiming for? I'm quite good with buses in the SHSG / WHSG area if that's any help? Not so familiar with ColCHS though.

In the Southend area the main bus companies are Arriva and First with a few services run by Stephenson's and Regal Busways. In Chelmsford most of the routes seem to be covered by First, again with some others such as Regal.

[Minesatea]

And I may be able to help if its ColCHSG. ToadMum and I are the opposite ends of the county!

[Mrs Sinatra]

Minesatea, thank you. Yes it is ColCHSG we're aiming for. Any help you might be able to give would be welcome.