School not letting my child from the school

I’ve just read all the OPs posts again in case I’d missed it. She doesn’t say that at all she says there will be an adult at home because DH finishes about that time. She doesn’t say where either she or he works. It would be very easy yo say DH works at home or she dies, but she doesn’t. If DH WFH why does his finish t8me matter to whether anyone is there?

I think there is way more to the OP’s family set up than she is going to put on here…. The school are safeguarding the child in my opinion.

Why dont you just ask another parent to pick her up if you live so close anyway? Save you all this headache.
And the safeguarding etc.. well you live close but can you trust your child everyday will follow and not go somewhere else is what I'm thinking the consern is.

Because of the daylight hours and the fact that they will all be 6 months older than now, so nearly 10 instead of just turned 9.

Absolutely bonkers. I would usually ask why English parents put up with this sort of shit when there is none of it in Scotland, kids here aged almost 10 would take themselves home no questions asked, but this is clearly what happens when parents challenge it.

Again. Totally unhinged.

This is ridiculous. The DD is 10 next month. Why will the rest of her class be able to walk home from April, when some of them won’t be 10 till August.

@ClockwiseHoneysuckle because then parents start to ask for leniency. Like it or lump it.

@Takoneko I'm not saying you're lying, I'm sure you're what you say you are.

I'm sure you're right and the school are acting illegally. What would you advise to OP to do to force the school to comply with their wishes and allow their child to walk home? Is there a particular turn of phrase that would do the trick? What's the process they should follow, given what they've done so far?

Why can't they have policies that, say, children who live within a defined walking distance can walk home? It's perfectly sensible and logical.

Who is the adult at home? I’ve read all of the updates and the OP doesn’t say where she is just that dh and older child arrive home around the same time, what time is the child getting picked up from asc? If they were picking up minutes after the end of the day - what are they being charged for and this could prove their case the child is not alone.

I've just filled in a form today for my year 5 DS to let school know how they are getting home, the options to choose from were, parent picking up from the yard, afterschool club or child walking home alone. obviously I don't know your school or the area but that does seem excessive.

What reason would I possibly have to lie? It’s hardly the most glamorous job in the world. 😂😂

I’d like you to explain to me like what you think is wrong about what I said.

Parents with parental responsibility are allowed to make decisions like this about their children. In order to override that parental responsibility you need need a court order or an emergency police protection order, which is temporary and lasts only 72 hours to allow time for a family court to hear the case.

Please explain to me any piece of relevant legislation that you think allows a school to hold a child against the parents’ wishes and charge a parent a fee because the parent has made a parenting decision that they disagree with. I’ve never come across it.

They absolutely could and should leave it to parents' discretion.

They could release the child if parents had written consent on file, an "opt in" with a default of "someone will accompany the child home." That is how it's done where I live.

I don't think the OP is suggesting wilful disobedience. Asking for a policy to be shown, and if there is one for it to be changed given defined reasons is not wilful disobedience.

I assume you live in an area with a certain type of police force such as South Yorkshire (their failings did not start and end at Hillsborough) or Gloucestershire (whose blind eye turning approach emboldened the Wests). Any police force worth their salt would have had a quiet polite conversation with the school to get them to be reasonable.

And working from home does not mean stopping work for 20 minutes necessarily. I have no child to collect, but twice a week at a minimum have project meetings at school finish times.

But it's become increasingly clear that the child will be home alone.

Our school had a similar rule (I was a school governor).

In April children will be 6 months older, and at that age, 6 months can make a significant difference to maturity. But more importantly, from April onwards it’s lighter, so you’re not letting children walk home in dark, cold, wet/icy conditions. And as it’s a blanket rule, those children might be walking a considerable distance, not just up the road. There is logic behind the reason.

I don’t think k it’s unreasonable to have a blanket rule. The work involved in doing safeguarding checks on every request would be significant so it’s not unreasonable to have a blanket rule in place.

Also worth pointing out that some of the OP’s arguments on this thread have been contradictory- maybe the school has noticed that too and have concerns about the assurances being given…

This isn’t about rules though is it! Legally the right to decide when a child is ready to walk home lies (within reason) with the parent.

the primary school mine went to had the age as year 5 that is a sensible safeguard measure for the school to implement anything beyond that is going beyond their rights. Pre that I think it shoild
depend on the parent and the circumstances

here it is a perfectly sensible choice for them to walk home the school and for me it is not within the remit for the school to decide

I was riding my bike a couple of miles to and from school when I was nine and much of it was on a very busy road. No one batted an eyelid - everyone was doing it, either by bike or on foot. I know this was a while ago but there does seem to be rather a lot of mollycoddling going on now.

When did you start this ro with the school? You were told about the POLICY in Year R, so how long have you been fighting this battle? Have you spoken to any of the other parents about this? Maybe one of them would allow your DD to leave with them, if they are all walking the same way.