Your commute can make or break a job; that’s the long and the short of it.

For some people, working outside of a school’s catchment area holds huge appeal. But just how far would you - or should you - travel for your perfect school?

Although many teachers don’t want to bump into students in their local supermarket, there are just as many for whom a short commute is the dream.

Cutting back on travel time means more time to spend with family or to spend simply unwinding at home.

We’ve taken a look at the pros and cons of long and short commutes - and considered what job-hunting teachers should ask themselves when setting the parameters of their search. 

Changing teacher jobs: the short commute

Sarah Barker, an assistant head in the South West of England, found that trading her long commute for a shorter one had a positive effect on her work-life balance.

“My previous school was on the other side of Bristol, and I’d often spend 90 minutes a day in the car,” says Barker. “I loved the school, but the commute was frustrating and I often felt that I was missing out on precious family time.”

However, there were also positives to that longer commute, which Barker now misses.

“Now, I work in a school just five minutes up the road and while I don’t miss the commute, I have realised that I used to get a lot of ‘thinking time’ done in the car,” she says. “I also used to listen to audiobooks on the journey - something that I do miss.”

But, for some teachers, having a short commute is non-negotiable. 

For instance, Victoria Schaefer, a deputy head at West Hatch High School in Chigwell, Essex, says that when she was looking for a new role, she had to make a short commute a priority so that her job would fit in with her family situation.

“My context is that I am a mum. I have a young family, a seven- and a three-year-old, and I don’t want to be commuting long distances,” Schaefer explains. “So that narrowed my search when I was looking for promotion opportunities. I needed to know I can get to [my children] quickly if needed, or if I can attend sports day without taking a whole day off.” 

Job hunting tip:

If you’ve got a young family and are reliant on childcare, you might want to try using the postcode of your nursery or childminder to search for schools, rather than your home address.

The long commute

Many people who work in schools claim they would rather drive for an hour than risk bumping into students on a Saturday.

But is there more to a long commute than just driving time?

“The quality of the commute is important, too,” points out Hilary Goldsmith, a school business manager at a school in Kent. “If you can arrive feeling chilled, you will be so much more productive than if you’ve had the journey from hell.”

This is a sentiment that Laura Rowlands, an English teacher in the South West of England, can relate to. She used to travel 70 miles a day for her teaching job, but enjoyed the time the journey gave her to decompress.

“When I was job hunting, I deliberately set a large radius when I was looking at Tes Jobs,” she says. “I was much more interested in finding a school that was the right fit for me than I was in finding a school close to home.”

The long commute wasn’t daunting, Rowlands adds; she found ways to make the time pass.

“I love listening to music, and the journey meant I was able to enjoy listening to a whole album, rather than just a few songs,” she says. 

“It was also a great way to decompress after a long day, so when I walked through the door I was already de-stressed, not still dwelling on what happened in period five,” she adds. 

Job hunting tip

How can you tell if your commute will be stressful without doing it, though?

Schaefer says it is worth checking local traffic reports. “What constitutes ‘too far’ is a difficult question because to an extent it depends on the roads,” she says. 

“You need to go in with some key questions: are you going against the traffic or with it? Is it an easy drive or is there a lot of stop and start? Is it local or on motorways?”

Going green 

And regardless of whether a journey looks stressful or not, for some teachers there are more factors to consider than just convenience.

For Laura Tsabet, the option of leaving the car at home is an environmental bonus.  

“Although the nursery drop-off, my piles of marking and constant lack of time mean it’s not always easy for me to go car-free, I’m very aware of my carbon footprint,” says Tsabet. 

She suggests that job-hunting teachers might similarly want to think about green transport options when they weigh up their choices. “I try to cycle or run once or twice a week. Both are emission-free and better for my health. It’s win-win,” she says.

Schaefer agrees, though adds that the same considerations around levels of stress may apply for some modes of transport, such as trains - shoving your way on to a packed commuter carriage is hardly a relaxing start to the day.

“In terms of train travel, you have a lot of similar considerations,” she says. “Wherever the school is, I check to see how many different ways I can travel to the school using different methods of transport: bike, train, bus, etc.”

Job hunting tip:

Use Google Maps to look at your route and work out if cycling or jogging would be an option on some days.

For teachers in rural communities, Google Streetview is handy to work out cycle lanes and pathways.