Does this sound ok? School run…

Kids walk alone to and from school at that age here but the school does need a letter from the parent to confirm (probably so it’s not the responsibility of the school).

Given I was walking to school without parents long before that age, it sounds absolutely fine to me.
Clearly I am old though.

If the school couldn’t accommodate you with space, I suggest you chat to them about your problem and ask them to assist you with a solution.

I'd suggest it's the allowing them to chat to randomers online that's the issue here, not the walking home alone part.

But where do you draw the line though?

We could all be paying for our 16 year olds to have taxis door to door 'because it's safer' than ever walking - but this would not teach them responsibility and being ready for the world. Or refuse to ever let them use knives or the cooker because it's safer not to.

Teaching kids learned helplessness and calling it 'safety' is not doing them any favours.

Would be fine at our local primary school (London). Kids generally start walking on their own in yr5 but sometimes in yr4 if they are very close to school. There would be loads of adults around at the school gates if there were any issues but I would expect an 8 and 9 year old to be able to wait sensibly for 5 mins.

Or what, though?

Genuine question, what are the school going to do about it? I'm always intrigued by what will actually happen in these scenarios where schools lay down the law.

Bloody ridiculous, I used to walk to school at that age. Its 5 minutes fgs. We are raising a generation to be helpless (not having a go at you, just frustrated by our nutty society).

Yes good point from @usedtobeaylis about how busy the road is. My DC's school was on a side road (the main traffic was parents who insisted on parking outside the school!). But if the place where they would wait is on a very busy road then that's worth bearing in mind.

@StellaTheCriminalMastermind that poster was talking about a year 4 DC not a 4yo.

He is 8 or 9 years old not four.

Go for it

And if there are objections use it as leverage for a an appeal of the the appeal .

If children go to different schools you can normally arrange to drop one off late with the headteacher

Unless there is some reason they are likely to run off, I would say this is fine.

However I would definitely tell the school this is what I have to do to avoid being late with dc3 and that I will ALWAYS be in contact before 8am if the dc are sick so if EVER they don’t appear in class unexpectedly school should immediately raise the alarm.

Huh? A four year old was online, reading and interacting with a stranger, and decided to take themselves off across the city to meet them, despite being FOUR and highly unlikely to be able to read, let alone have bus fare?! Give over 😆

Totally fine if they're sensible.
Dd1 in year 6 walked with dd2 in year 3 ( and sometimes a couple if dd2's friends) to and from juniors as I needed to get ds to infants. This was a 40-50 minute walk.

They liked the responsibility

If they are sensible kids (they won't fight with each other or run in the road or anything) I think that's fine.

My kids are past primary age but at their school the head said (and encouraged) year 6 kids to walk to and from school alone to prepare for secondary. It was also a small school with a small catchment so most pupils were in close walking distance. But she insisted that year 5 and below must be brought to school and collected by an adult. Some parents however did allow their sensible year 4 and 5s to go to school alone or with an older sibling and the head kept telling the parents not to. The thing was it was impossible to police as whilst it was possible for the school to refuse to release a child until the parent turned up, they couldn't really refuse a child admission when turning up at the school in the morning. So it ended up unofficially allowed.

That sounds so hard!

I had similar, not in the UK, but I would walk from the transport to school and back at the age of 4 onwards and stop off at a cafe full of men for a glass of water because it was so hot.

I think you're really the only one who can judge this and how safe it is. Some schools have their front gates right on busy roads and you would need to assess that. Our school has a main gate and then another gate where it would be fine to drop your kids five minutes early.

I feel like people would freak out at the number of kids who walk to school by themselves here from primary 2. If they can walk on their own they can wait on their own. And in your case they won't even be on their own, they'll be together.

loads of kids do this our our school (years 3-6) even though I think it’s against the school’s policy strictly speaking. They all stand around outside the gate for 5-10 mins until it opens. There’s usually a few parents hanging around too but not a parent for every kid.

the school is set back about 20m from the public road, so the kids waiting by the gate are firmly on school property, if that makes a difference.

I wouldn’t have a problem with this, I dropped one of mine off near school and she just walked the rest of the way from 8 1/2, and my ds (different school) walked from home age 9, with a couple of roads to cross

Ah well apparently it’s “mad” to want to do that or think others should.

One of those saying it’s mad inadvertently got to the nub of it saying “it’s a waste of money”. People don’t seem to want to spend their money these days making sure their children are in safe hands!

My 8 year old rides his bike to school by himself so I don't think this should be a problem. Children are capable of much more than a lot of adults give them credit for.

This year we did have a year four child going missing after finishing school and being found across the city. The suspicious was he was meeting someone from the internet so yeah I can see why some parents are cautious.

I would do breakfast club for the first term. If only because your plan leaves so little margin of error..You just need one child to forget something, fallover and hurt their knee or one incident at the gate etc

and the beginning of term is quite hectic.

I had to cycle one of mine to school pre secondary school to instill some kind of road sense into their little head.

But by the end of first term.. Both will be older and wiser, the youngest wll be more settled in and you will be very familiar with how much time you need to get them in and get them sorted.

Then you will be able to relax a bit more and have more time to ask a friendly parent to watch out for them ( though you'd have to set up a cover system if theire are absent for any reason)

This would also allow you a bit more time initially to connect with other parents at the gate at the new school- and the youngest is always going to need a bit more time in the mornings if its a new school .

Is this sarcasm?

My English school lets children that age go home as long as there is permission from the parent.