Travel from Shirley to SGGS

[smile123]

My dd has been offered a place at SGGS and we live on border of hall green/Shirley. Are there any parents on here whose dd come from these ends. Can you give me any information about how the journey is to Stratford, roughly how long it takes etc. I know there is the train option, the bus number 20 option as well as the Johnson’s private school service leaving from Solihull station. Do you have any recommendations about each of these. I have done the train journey and I know the girls walk through the park just next to the school, is that safe in the evenings? Sorry for all the questions. Any advice would be much appreciated. Also if any girls starting this year and near these ends in Shirley and hall green, I’m happy to meet up beforehand if anyone is interested.

[kenyancowgirl]

Before you applied to the school what did your research into travel tell you was the best option? How did you imagine she would get there? That is probably still your best option as the school hasn't moved...!

[smile123]

As you can see from my message I have researched the travel options but came onto the forum to ask those with children who already go if there were additional routes or services that I wasn’t aware of and any feedback about these existing journey options that may help.

[Molly10]

My daughter started at SGGS in September and gets the train from Henley in Arden. Prior to her starting at the school I was also concerned about her walking through the park on her way to and from the station, but there are lots of them that do it and they tend to walk in groups. If your daughter does end up on the train I'd be happy to ask my daughter to keep an eye out for her.

[smile123]

Thank you so much for your kindness. I’m glad to hear that the park area is not as bad as I initially worried. I’m not sure how I would feel about her walking in those parts though by herself if she was taking part in after school activities. Hopefully I will get a better idea of where girls are coming from nearer the time.

[stargirl]

Gosh that is a bit of a trek for the girls. I suppose they get used to it.

[purplelilacs]

This is going to be contentious, but personally I think it's a very strange decision to send your children to a school so far away from where you live. I know that off the record, some of the teachers at the school feel the same way. Making young children travel such long distances at the beginning and end of the day must surely have an impact on them. I know many of you who choose to do this will come on and say your kids are fine, get used to it quickly and even enjoy the journey. But seriously - how many adults happily choose to commute for 2-3 hours a day? Commuting is one of the things regularly cited as causing stress in people's lives. Why you would do that to your children I just have no idea.

Additionally something that barely gets mentioned is the impact of so many girls travelling such long distances, on the school experience of any local girls attending. For example they barely run any after school clubs as there are transport issues for so many girls trying to get home later. So instead they have had to create an extended lunch time one day a week when the majority of the extra-curricular clubs run.

It also makes it so much harder for girls to have a social life outside of school. If their friends live so far away its hard to arrange to see each other at weekends and holidays. Let's be honest, everyone's lives are busy and most parents do not want to spend their weekends travelling backwards and forwards to Solihull or Hall Green to facilitate that. So it doesn't happen. So gone are the days of kids popping round to their friend's houses in their free time to hang out and have fun. That's such a shame. It's such an important part of growing up.

We live in Stratford and I have a daughter at Shottery and a son at KES and being totally honest the changed geography of the school population has had a detrimental affect on their school experiences. I think there are only about 10 boys in my son's year at KES who live in Stratford or the very immediate villages. 10 out of 84?!? These are no longer local schools for local children. And personally I think that's not a good thing. Although on the flip side, it's probably very good news for the high school as it means the Grammars probably have much less of an impact on their intake!

I should probably reveal that I went to Shottery myself (long time ago now!) When I was there all the girls came from Stratford and its surrounding villages. It was a local school. Then they opened up the catchment and it all changed.

There was a report on BBC Midlands last night that disclosed that the number of children attending Gloucester Grammar schools from outside the county had increased by 55% in the last 2 years. So this is not just a Stratford issue. I think a study on the impact of that on all the children attending the schools where this is a feature, would be interesting.

Am sure many people will disagree with me. Obviously we are all entitled to our opinions and I appreciate it's all about parental choice.

My intention is not to offend anyone but just to raise something that I think is worthy of consideration and to maybe challenge the accepted view that travelling a long distance to get to a particular school is always a good thing. Let alone thinking about the environmental impact of all this travelling everyday!

I'd be interested to know what everyone else thinks.