If you live in an urban area then you may be surprised to learn of the sheer number of schools nearby. Here at SchoolDash Towers in north London, we count 69 mainstream secondary schools within a 5km radius. Even omitting independent (ie, private, fee-charging) schools, there are still 35 of them. The corresponding numbers for primary schools are 164 and 118, respectively.
On the other hand, if you live in a rural area then you probably won't be surprised to hear that there are far fewer options and they tend to be much further away. Indeed, a parish councillor wrote to us to describe their situation in which, following the recent closure of a local school, there are no mainstream, non-selective state secondary schools at all within many miles. As a result, around a thousand children are now bussed long distances every day, increasing absenteeism and worsening community cohesion. How many other local areas, they wondered, are experiencing something similar? That's a good question to which this post aims to provide some answers.
