To think Year 4 is too young to walk home from school alone

Mine did and it was fine. He was super proud to be the first in his year to walk to and from school by himself. He is 12 now.

I am early 50s and this was completely normal when I was a child.

Depends on the child and the route.

Depends on the child and the route.

Depends on the child and the route.

Mostly its complaints about swearing loudly in playgrounds where younger children are rather than proper bad behaviour.

It is definitely much easier when there are other children out and about, they aren't alone. Adults will tell off kids round here sometimes, and then they post on the local Facebook group what happened, asking parents if they recognise their own kids to have a word with them too, so its maybe even better now as word about misbehaviour spreads easier. Though some will just post on Facebook and not actually say anything to the kids.

I'm glad someone said this. I was doing this sort of journey alone at 5 years old and we lived in Edinburgh at the time. We then moved to a new town in Scotland and I was out and about and sometimes taking the bus by myself to go to the library, from the start. Admittedly that was the mid 1960s and there would have been less traffic on the roads, but another factor that made it reasonably safe was that most children were out and about unsupervised from a young age, so there were plenty of us, and most adults saw it as part of their civic responsibilities to look out for them and if necessary to tell them off. Parents didn't take offence at that, quite the contrary.

My own children had a lot less freedom than I had, and I feel sorry about that, but they grew up in a very different time. They are now in their 30s and things have got even more restrictive for children since then. A neighbouring child who is now a young teen has only just started going out unescorted by parents and even now is escorted to the bus stop in the morning on the way to school.

It didn’t help me at all when my 9 year old started walking to school and home, as I still have to take her younger brother. If anything it made life more complicated!

But you called it was it is: helping.

I also would say there’s nothing wrong with finding a solution that helps the entire family. Most parents are juggling work and children and sometimes just a 10 minute solution can make everyone’s lives easier and why not? Of course I look after my children and I’m not reckless, but the first time my daughter went to the shops on her own was absolutely because I was home with her poorly brother and needed something easy for our dinner. That helped me first, but also she was really, really proud of herself. And the whole family had a much better evening.

My child walks to school and I pick her up. She’s just started year 4. This is what she wanted and it’s only about a 7 minute walk with lots of school children and parents. She prefers me to pick her up in the car as she’s tired after school 😂 I expect next year she will be coming home alone.

Shes a very sensible girl. I have no concerns, and im very proud of her. She goes to the local shop alone too. Or I would leave her with her little brother who is 2 and pop down to the shop for ten minutes during nap time. Never had no problems with this at all. She likes the independence.

Parent or nothing-they tried to hint they'd get ss involved (I laughed and told them to go ahead) but expected them to leave at year 6 and be fully independent!

That implied threat, and the belief that it is the schools choice, is what many schools rely on to stop parents arguing the point that it should be up to them.

I do actually think schools that actively block children walking solo until the last term of Y6 (I worked in at least 4) are the worst culprits as the children only get a few weeks experience and then have to, generally, do a much longer journey solo to high school.

My child did and she’s well capable of it, some of her peers would not be

Traffic has improved in most places though. Where I live, there are more speed limits, stricter controls, more zebra crossings, more bumps to slow cars down, raised pedestrian crossings that didn't exist at all 20 years ago. So what's actually changed is our perception of danger, and not the actual dangers.
This is true for a lot of aspects in parenting.

Traffic around schools hasn't improved in many areas though.

I live in a pretty safe village, traffic wise, but there used to be three lollipop ladies at the busier bits years ago - all gone now despite the fact the actual amount of traffic has increased.

So whilst it may be true in your area it's actually safer now that's not the same everywhere (and I say that as someone who believes children should walk to and from school when they can and had to push my first DDs school into accepting it was my choice, but theirs).

Driving standards are atrocious on many occasions now as well. When I was a kid nobody would have dreamed of ignoring the HT and parking on the zig zags outside the school. Now at many schools it's like a competition to see who can drive and park the worst.

I think it is totally OK in general for an 8yo to walk to and from school alone, assuming they know how to cross the road safely and that they only have to cross quiet roads or at crossings. Obviously each parent has to decide based on their own particular circumstances.

I think it has to depend rather a lot on the child and the route.

However, I have just posted on another thread that generally speaking I feel the push for "independence" is often an excuse for parental convenience and doesn't really benefit the child as much as people claim. That starts to change as they hit their teens I think, but there is no harm in protecting children while they are exactly that, children.

However, some routes would be fine at that age.

At my dcs old school (they are now adults) no child was allowed to walk home alone,even if they lived next door with no main roads to cross

Anyone who picked them up had to be over 16

I sent dd (who at the time was two weeks off turning 18) and they had a fit

Parent or nothing-they tried to hint they'd get ss involved (I laughed and told them to go ahead) but expected them to leave at year 6 and be fully independent!

We lived a 5 minute walk with one quiet road with two crossings and I had two sensible kids and one that wasn't

Bonkers

We live in a tiny market town and my year 4 rides her bike home. There are no main roads and she’s home within about 7-10 minutes.
She has a key attached to the inside of her bag in case she gets home a few minutes for me. She loves getting back and getting herself a snack and a drink.

She has such little freedom in comparison to mine and her dad’s childhood that I really try to allow her as much independence as I can.

My primary wasn't my closest, that would have been a 1 minute walk. I went to a Catholic school which was a 10 minute walk away crossing residential roads and yes we did walk home but they were a lot less cars on the road back then and everyone in my street all knew each other by sight. If you came off your bike Mr Peters from no 4 would have stopped washing his car, picked you up and carried you back home. I can imagine the uproar now if some random bloke who lived down the street carried a female child in his arms.

My children's school was a 45 minute walk away, across public footpaths over fields and down dual carriageways with a 70mph speed limit and a crossing a major motorway junction. I basically drove them to school every day and parked 5 minute walk away so they could use their scooters and still get the scoot to school points. When Ds was in year 6 he was allowed to walk ahead so I could monitor his road crossing skills as I still had to walk his younger sibling in.

So if the local primary was a 1 minute walk, yes, if it was my children's 45 minute walk crossing busy roads, no. It depends on the child and the route.

Depends on where you are, as many other posters have said as well. But even if there are still dangerous situations and drivers, our roads have got steadily safer over the last decades, as is evident by the steady fall in road casualties (including pedestrians) since the 70s, despite an increasing population.
It's common to think our roads are very dangerous and have got more dangerous recently, so we're justified in not letting our children walk alone anywhere. But it's actually a skewed perception and has nothing to do with reality.

DD walked home from year 3. She is very sensible and good at crossing the roads. There were always other people around as its a school route. DS1 has auADHD so we waited until end of year 4. DS2 we waited until y5 as he has zero common sense.

I have twins and in P4 (they’d just turned 9) I asked for them to be allowed to leave alone once a week. They’d walk up to local community centre 300 yards have an ice cream then ballet lesson. Then I’d pick them up. They normally allow it from p5.

We did have to have a conversation but they were ok in the end. My thought was they are sensible/ have each other/ quiet place where everyone knows each other and a big brother who was also at the school.

Traffic around many schools has absolutely not improved - cars double/triple parked, stopped on zigzags and double yellows - giant SUVs with a massive front over blindspot driven by morons with no regard for anyone else but themselves and their own children.

I think it really depends on child/ route. If you don’t want your child to walk then meet them. The middle ground for our school was the local park kids would walk there after school and play and parents pick them up.

Our school, no, the roads are manic. That's my main concern with it. Local schools here don't allow it until year 6.
If ai lived in a village with little through traffic then possibly. But I would also never forgive myself if something happened. They are still small at age 8, can be easily distracted, grabbed and bundled into a car or van, still a bit uncoordinated.
Unless its a small walk and everyone is going the same way, then potentially.