School not letting my child from the school

I agree!
How are we supposed to allow children to have some much needed and appropriate independence with policies like this in force?!

Is everyone missing the recent news that a group of kids beat up and killed an elderly man? It's not outside the realm of possibility that nine year old girl would be a target. That is not the same thing as never allowing a child independence

And we wonder why lots of children have mental health issues.

The school cannot implement this legally. They have no right to dictate. Both primary schools mine have attended allowed children to walk home from year five. You’re not asking for anything untoward or odd. Sounds like they’re trying to scam you into using the ASC to me!

All this drama over a walking home from school take it the holidays are over.
Schools are mad houses never liked schools never will.

@NeedSomeAnswersPlease

sre you unfamiliar with what 300m of pavement looks like? It's not 3 miles through a dodgy area & roads to cross,

most much younger children are allowed to walk 300m with no roads to cross to go to the newsagents.

@Kutika no other suggestion to what has already been suggested, but I'd be taking every option possible to make them allow it. It's fucking ridiculous.

You can't really escalate.

You and your husband just need to be bloody minded about it.

That's however parent I know for the last 20 years has managed to get their sensible child(ren) to be able to walk to and from school on their own before the age the school set. They didn't send numerous emails they just did it.

Big joke with my DDs school is that the head sends messages every year and a few times a year saying children not in year 6 can't walk to and from school on their own. There are a group of children who live in a block of flats right next to the school. Only those 8+ are sent to school on their own from the flats. Depending on the time the children leave they are actually going to school with some of their neighbours who are taking younger children, and even if they aren't their parents can see them going to school from their balconies.

Now all the ones defending your school on this thread would say why won't the parents walk the kids to the school ignoring the fact that lots of children are suffering from anxiety and are scared to do things as teens simply because they aren't allowed to do this reasonable task on their own which is actually age appropriate due to where they live.

Oh and I'd love to know how you got the police involved in this?

Then your DH might have to ask his manager if he can have a shorter lunch break a couple of times per week.

So perhaps you could pay for the after school club on just a few days?

I would be fuming too, both my kids walked home in year 5, and dd2 walked home in year 4. This is totally normal in most countries. Unless you are in Shetland and it's actually dark at home time, what is the difference to them to wait until April after all done dc will still be 9 then!

You could write to the chair of governors or academy trust, the LEA, your MP but I'm not sure if any of them will actually stand up for you because if something did happen they could be considered liable

Our school don't allow them to leave by themselves until Year 6. Thing is, it maybe 300m for your child but what about the next child who's a mile away. Do you expect them to measure distance and make special allowances for a shorter distance? How short? Other parents will complain and then they will have to allow all Year 5's.

I agree with the school. A rule is a rule.

why can't the school kid just walk home 300 yards?

Are you saying you work from home so are always in or that your husband and older child arrive home a similar time - if so is there a risk the child could be locked out/home alone if something held them up?

if you work from home I would continue to fight this but if you don’t and there is a risk I think you need to make arrangements to collect

what time are colllecting from asc? This might be proving to the school that the child will be home alone

@Kutika who collected her when she was in year 4?

Well the issue kind of is that your DH's hours don't suit his childcare responsibilities at the moment.

A few posters have asked, what was the arrangement before this problem occurred?

They will allow it though, they just ask that you wait until April. Presumably before now you've either collected or used ASC so just do that until April. It seems like such an odd hill to die on.

This is all just so much hassle - official complaints to the trust, the DoE, threats of small claims court... when between them, and likely the DH, could rearrange things to just collect the child.

What did you do for pick ups prior to this school year. As a PP said, for your own sanity, might it be easier to just carry that on for the final 7 months before school will let her go alone? It sounds very stressful.

There's always one MNetter who'd be walking their child to Uni if they had their way! 🤣🤣

@Reugny seeing the state of the uk today there is no chance a child that young should be walking home alone!!