Would you allow an 11yo to pick up 8yo from school?

Similar for our city based primary school. Under 16s aren't allowed to collect. During a family emergency I needed my then 15 YO to collect the younger sibling. I had to call the school first to have it authorised, my son had to collect sibling from the office rather than the normal handover spot and there had to be an email trail with my explaining the reason (not in detail, literally just saying there was an emergency) and the school responding that it was okay for that day, given the situation. I get it, there's a whole safeguarding protocol in place and they're just making sure they don't take any risks.

By exception yes, not as the normal thing each day.

Yes, my 11yo has picked up her 4yo brother from school a couple of times (with me at home waiting for them) - I checked it with the Head first and she was fine with it. It depends how sensible they are.

No. I think I'm pretty relaxed, but I think that giving an 11 year old responsibility for an 8 year old next to a road is unreasonable.

I think for most things there is a few years between being responsible for yourself, and responsible for someone else. When do you think your 8 year old will be old enough to walk home from school by themselves? Age 10 seems pretty standard here. But they aren't ready to be responsible for a younger child a year later. My children are only 18m apart, and I never let the older be responsible for the younger as they were too close. I always waited until the younger could be responsible for themselves.

I am definitely of the opinion that an 11 year old and an 8 year old are perfectly capable of walking through a village home from school.

But I do not know of any primary schools that would allow an under 18 to collect.
The only way is to say that the 8 year old can walk home alone and they chose to wait for their sibling and walk together.

But again, most primaries only allow kids to walk home alone in year 5 or 6.

My kids primary allowed the older kids to leave unaccompanied, or with a high school age sibling, if they had written permission from parents. I would be fine with it but if the 8 year old is a bit reckless, maybe not.

That makes no sense, either it should be the parents decision or not.

I think it's ridiculous that schools don't let 8 years olds out unaccompanied & the collecting person has to be over 18. Nuts.

No. I would say 12 & 9 is ok. School allow them to walk home themselves from year 5 so that's my benchmark.

DD babysat her little brother when she was 13, she did a great job. 7 year age gap though so he listens to her.

I do agree that it's not fair on any child at any age to put them in a situation where their sibling might wind them up. That's a real issue here. But it's part of a healthy gaining of independence to let an 8 year old be home alone.

If you can't leave your 11 year old home alone for longer than an hour, you probably need to consider working with them a bit more so that they can catch up with their peers.

And yes, of course I use babysitters under the age of 16 - I don't know anyone who wouldn't? Except if you have a child with extra needs, in which case the issue isn't the age of the babysitter.

Yes mine did it and it was very bonding for them. Still do it now in yr 8/yr5.

Our primary allows Y6 to walk home with parental permission. But collect turns of younger children need to be 14 I think. However my train was delayed and they did allow my Y7 to collect his Y5 brother from after school club.
Big one was worried that little one would play up.

If allowed I'd give it till the first half term as they grow up so much in terms of travelling to school sense in that time

Because an 8 year old shouldn’t really be left at home alone for long! I wouldn’t leave an 11 year old home alone for more than an hour max let alone also in charge of an unreliable younger sibling. Older sibling should only be left in charge of the younger ones can be 100% relied upon to do what that older one says. It’s a massive responsibility. Would you allow anyone under the age of 16 to babysit??

Exactly.

Why?

Will someone be waiting for them when they get home? The pickup and walk home is possibly ok but they can’t be at home alone for any longer than about 10/15 minutes.

As others have said, we have similar age kids and our primary school will not allow anyone under the age of 18 to pick up kids

Our school won't allow any under 16's to
collect

Not if the younger one is not sensible.
20 min walk is too far if the younger one is being unpredictable.
11yo and a well behaved / sensible child yes.

Would the 8 year old listen to the 11 year old and do what they say? Such a close age gap could be an issue. That said, most 8 year olds walk alone or with friends here, even the very silly ones. Only you know your children, how they behave with each other and how well they follow instructions and those are the main things to consider.

But it's not a reasonable approach to safeguarding to have a blanket ban on any group, it needs to be more nuanced than that. Unless there are specific concerns, the child should be released. After all, if I tell the school my friend Jon is collecting my daughter today, they have to accept that - it's not their place to question whether Jon is a trustworthy adult.

I think it would be tedious for the 11 year old if the younger child started to play up, and that's not very nice for them.

Age wise it should not be an issue. My DD's school will allow an 8 year old to come home alone so long as there's parental permission; lots of schools would allow children in years 5 and 6 of primary school to walk home unsupervised, so an older child collecting is neither here nor there. Obviously it must be different for schools where there are real concerns about, say, very busy roads nearby. But in this situation, it doesn't sound as if there's any issue except the risk of the younger child playing up because his sibling is there.

What happens if you issue dire warnings to the 8 year old? Make the situation conditional on something they care about? I think I would want to do the first time as a trial, with a very clear understanding that if there's any messing around, the 8 year old loses the privilege of going home early with his sibling.

Another here whose primary wouldn’t allow it. They’ve actually rang a parent before and told them they have to come in and collect the two of them, older child was 13, younger 9/10

Happens quite a bit in my DCs primary school. I think it’s fine.

Depends on the rules - i would (and did) trust my then 11yo to accompany her 8yo sister out of a after school club - but the rules were 8+ can leave alone (if parents sign a form) but 'collection' needs to be 16+ (if parents hadn't signed the independent traveller forms)