Getting year 7s to school. Is this unusual?

We do live in a village in a fairly rural area though - I might feel differently if we were in a city.

My yr4 ds walks (the admittedly 1.5 mins) to school on his own. Dd has just started yr7 (having only turned 11 at the end of August) and is happily walking 10 mins to the bus stop and getting the bus.

If the child is capable and happy to do it, the parents need to let go of the apron strings!

It will be area dependent. At my DSs school they won't release the children at the end of the day unless to a parent/notified adult until Year 7. Year 6 children are not allowed to leave school without an adult.

I think this must depend on school/area. Round here DC start making their way independently to school from Year 5, so a secondary school child getting a lift from a parent unless particularly good reason would be considered very odd indeed.

Surely it's also partly dependent on the school. DS1 is in Year 7 and practically every child at the school is either on a school bus or else taken by parents due to the fact that it has a very wide catchment area.

It's also dependent on the parents' arrangements. DH works a few minutes from the school. It would be very odd for him not to do the school drop off.

Seems silly if she will be travelling with your DD anyway. DD started today and DH dropped her while he was walking the dog but this was just for the first day as we didn't know where she needed to go and didn't want her going in flustered! She will have to walk home this afternoon (about a mile) and I will just have to let her get on with it as I am picking up DS at the same time. She is nearly 12 and will be fine (I hope!) - they need to grow up at some point.

I offered to drive both my DC on their first day of high school but they opted to travel with their friends instead. I would never have insisted on taking them on a daily basis. It's time for them to start getting more independent.

Wonder what they'll do when the DD insists she wants to get the bus.

It is a bit scary letting them go off on their own but it's also absolutely essential. They change so much in year 7, one minute you're worrying about a 15 minute bus journey, the next they're getting a train, bus and tube to town.

I do find the novelty wears off though and they go back to pleading for lifts.

This is the same at DD's school. First day in Y7 yesterday and she came home on her own on the bus. Another parent who lives very near us wouldn't dream of letting her DD on public transport. Mum is 45 and her parents still pick her up after late nights out and they are in their early seventies. So perhaps it is a family thing that progresses down the generations? Even if I had an aged P to pick me up I wouldn't dream of asking them to do so.

Lots of kids get dropped off/picked up at the secondary school where I work. Nobody bats an eyelid.

Ditto where dd goes

Lots of kids get dropped off/picked up at the secondary school where I work. Nobody bats an eyelid.

My mum picked me up from school, I wasn't embarrassed I was just happy not to have to get the bus!

Oh and the school I went to wasn't necessarily rural either.

I don't think getting dropped off and picked up at secondary is unusual or embarrassing, seems like a bit of a mn myth to me. Loads of kids did it when I was at school and I was jealous as they got to go home in a nice warm car whilst I walked home in the rain/cold

I drop off and pick up DD (13) most days . She's a lazy cow who would be late, I'm usually free and I have a lot of baggage from being sent to school on my own from a fairly young age and in a inset on two tubes and a bus. I tell myself that the day will come when she won't want me to do it but there's no sign yet. She comes home in her own when I can't make it, she's perfectly capable. Someone also told me once that a lot of bonding goes on during the school run and this is another source of baggage for me bum pathetic aren't I ?

Oh and I even have permission to park in the staff car park as it's closer to the school than the visitor's car park which would most likely incense you further.

elderberry I've taken dd to school and picked her up every day too, she's 13. Despite being very clever she has ASD and associated co morbids. You obviously wouldn't know by looking at her you'd probably think her spoilt and me over protective however if I wasn't able to take her the LA would taxi her door to door as they too see that it is necessary.

Every child is different, just because one is happy & confident making their own way to school it doesn't mean another will be. There can be a big difference in kids in any given school year, some of them will be turning 12 this week whilst others only became 11 2 weeks ago.

I know a 17 yo whose parents still pick her up from evenings out. No lone taxi/bus/train journeys for her.

How she's supposed to cope when she goes to uni next year I've no idea.

The local authority advised someone not to let their secondary aged child travel to school alone, nicp? . Was she the birth parent?

My DSC live less than a mile away from school. Have been dropped and collected virtually every day by my dp.

I don't think it's helped their ability to be independent and one has just been diagnosed with a vitamin d deficiency.

Oh dear. DS and DD both walked to and from school alone in Y6. At secondary DD might phone me for a lift if she's feeling lazy and I'm at home, but generally she's independent. As are her friends!

Not unusual at all and I wouldn't judge other people or label them because we don't know all the facts.
Someone I know behaved the same towards her child because she was advised to do so by her Local Authority.There were very good reasons which were confidential; therefore, not to be discussed with me.
Personally I did make trips to school with my DSs' in their first few weeks of Year 7 as they wanted me to.