Great Malvern pupils at Pates/Sir Thomas Rich/Crypt?

[lili]

Dear Members
Our DS has just received good news about Pates, Sir Thomas Rich and Crypt. He is within the required ranking for all three. We wondered whether anyone has children or knows children that are actually live and travel from Malvern in Worcestershire or anywhere nearby in order to set up a possible lift sharing arrangement?
Best regards
Lili

[Stressed?Moi?]

Congrats to him. One thing I would say about lift share is that it can work out well, but also pretty badly. My friend did one from Bristol to Pates and it fell apart horribly. The kids fell out and made up frequently so there were apparently many journeys in silence. When the lift share was poorly or her daughter was, or they had dental/hospital appointments, then she was stuck for a lift and would end up driving her daughter anyway. She also couldn't do after school clubs as they clashed with the other child who didn't want to do them, so my friend ended up having to travel there anyway. She got car sick so couldn't do homework in the car as some children do and ended up time-pressured when she got home. The traffic some days was also something she hadn't taken into consideration (along with the vagaries of the M5!). Cost of petrol really mounted up. It's also worth considering the old, dreaded "poorly child" phone calls where you have to go and get them. She gave up in the end and took her herself so that she could plan her days/weeks accordingly. She said that Pates was a fab school and it was the one school she had made her mind up to go to and was prepared to make the sacrifice, and her daughter has done brilliantly there. Tommies is of course also a very good school and is about the same distance from the motorway as Pates. Crypt, whilst a very good school also, would make this a seriously long journey. This isn't to say lift share isn't for everyone of course as kids come from all around and manage just fine. Sorry to sound blunt and this obviously is just my friend's experience, but I would definitely have a back-up plan before making any decision like say, if a few parents were going and you could perhaps set up a taxi/mini bus or is there a bus to Cheltenham? Good luck.

[lili]

Dear Member,
Many thanks for your extremely sound advice. Lots to think about and tough decisions to make.