Practical issues linked to travel and transport were reported as being influential in parents’ choice of schools. This is unsurprising when considered alongside the literature which, despite parents theoretically being able to choose schools in any area, still shows that proximity and transport are key factors during the choice process (Coldron et al., 2008; Leroux, 2015). Data from both the questionnaires and interviews supports these findings, and
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the interviews also reveal some Free School parents’ interest and preference for extended school days.
The majority of parents from both groups suggested that proximity or transport were important factors although very few parents reported them as the most important. Table 7.2 indicates the proportion of parents who reported that ‘proximity’ and ‘transport’ were important or very important factors.
Table 7.2: Percentage of parents who reported convenience factors as ‘important’ or ‘very important’
% Free School parents % Non-Free School parents
Proximity 63.9 77.3
Cost/ease of transport 61.8 66.2
Fewer Free School parents stated that proximity and transport were important features when considering and choosing schools. The differences between the groups are not great although it does seem that more non-Free School parents were concerned about the school being close to their home. The interviews gave more detail on these issues from some Free School parents’ perspectives, indicating that distance and transport factors were not simply just about convenience and cost, but also sometimes about a desire to support a new public service in the local community.
7.1.4.1 Distance and Transport
The distance of potential schools away from home was a factor that nearly all parents referred to at some point during the interviews. The specific geographical contexts of the school and area where families lived were important in determining the emphasis that was placed on this factor. Where the Free School was close to home, parents were pleased that they now had what they perceived to be a “good, local school” (Morgan, 2014). Although not the most significant factor, a shorter home-school distance was interpreted as a ‘bonus’ feature of the Free School and something that parents were grateful for. For those who felt slightly uneasy about the possibility of opting away from the local school, the opening of a nearby Free School was a welcome addition to the choice set.
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…you apply for a place, we applied for a place online, you put in your postcode and [Free School] was the one that came up for our postcode, so we just actually, you know, we’ve chosen the closest school, which is for our kind of like morals, we were quite lucky and I think I’d have felt, I’m being totally honest here, would have felt uncomfortable, and it would have gone against my principles to send him not to my closest local school. Had [next nearest school] been my local closest school, I probably wouldn’t have sent him there, even thought that is kind of against my principles…
(IR, School, 5) Closely linked to the issue of distance to school was the cost and access of transport. In urban areas, parents felt that the provision of designated school buses was useful in helping their child to get to school quickly and safely. But it was for rural families that transport provision made more of a difference in terms of whether the Free School could even be considered an option. Parents were content to send their child to a school that was not their nearest so long as they could conveniently and safely access it.
Public transport is very intermittent, we do have it, but if you like, sort of they’ll have it for six months and then you don’t know if you’re going to get it again, so there was that issue for us as well. Albeit we thought [Free School] was a really good school and we liked how it was presented to us, we had a worry with the transport, but [Free School] sorted it out and they provided a minibus to collect children from this area…
(OW, School 6) The Free School’s decision to provide and fund a bus made the school a viable option for this family. This was particularly important following an unsuccessful appeal at their initial school of choice and their determination to avoid other schools that were underperforming but easier to access.
Even where parents did have to pay for a school bus, there was still a feeling of satisfaction that the transport provision was there and that this went some way to extending their feasible choice set of schools.
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[Child] having to get the bus, we pay for the bus, going out of catchment, getting up early, that wasn’t really an issue, we just felt that the most important thing was that [Child] felt comfortable at a school. I mean, she could walk to [alternative local school], but it just wasn’t right for her.
(KF, School 2)
A parent with a child at the same Free School commented, however, on the potential for transport costs to dissuade less affluent parents from choosing the school.
Something I will say about [Free School] actually is because you have to pay a fee for the bus, I do think you’re going to end up actually with, it’s quite a rural area round here and it’s not a poor area by any means, but I think you’re going to sort of get a little bit of a, the core group of students are definitely going to be middle class, ‘cause people can’t afford to pay for the bus…the bus is quite an expense and especially if you have more than one child going there…
(FD, School 2)
7.1.4.2 Extended school day
Several of the Free Schools discussed by participants were operating a longer school day. Where this was the case, parents reported that it was an attractive feature and a clear point of difference from other schools that they might have considered. This was not a factor that had been included in the questionnaire and no respondent mentioned it in the ‘open sections’ where parents were invited to note down additional influential choice factors. However, when discussing the provision that Free Schools were offering in the interviews, the attractiveness of an extended school day was a recurring theme. There were two main reasons for parents’ interest in a longer school day. The first related to the school’s provision of extra-curricular or enrichment activities as described above or the inclusion of independent study time at the end of the day. Second, a longer school day for the child often tended to fit in more conveniently with parents’ work commitments or family arrangements.
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My husband drops them off, they have to go to breakfast club in the morning and then they have after school clubs every day, except for one day which they have to walk home. …they don’t have any choice, either that or they have to walk to school, so they’d rather get there early by car and just have breakfast there, which is easier rather than walking there.
(HL, School 4) By contrast, another parent described how popular the extended school day was with other parents but for her, personally, it had not been a factor that influenced her choice. Instead she reflected on the potentially negative outcomes for her daughter.
I think everybody loves it, all the parents love it, it’s really, really popular, it might be to do with work, but my partner said ‘it won’t kill him’, my first one, because, you know he’d only be at home doing nothing, but I said, ‘sitting around doing nothing is quite a nice thing to do, isn’t it?’ So I don’t know, so my second kid, the daughter, I think that’s partly why she stresses, because it’s such a long day, it takes up all her life, like she gets little down time…
(LB, School 1) For parents, a longer school day is generally understood to be a positive feature, providing extra teaching and learning time, the opportunity for involvement in extra-curricular activities and free, supervised care in a safe environment. The schools are likely to be acutely aware of the popularity of extended school days, marketing them to aspirant parents as an opportunity for their children to achieve more and as a very practical and tangible point of distinction from other local competitors.