What age can/did your children walk to/from school alone?

[AhhhHereItGoes]

Also, what kind of area do you live in (council estate, sub urban, rural, small village etc).

DD1 seems to think you can do it from 7 but I think 9/10 is more likely to be the answer.

We live in a small village.

Will obviously ask school but just curious what everyone else will/have done.

Mine were Year6 so age 10 or 11, but there are a couple of roads, it's about 15 minutes walk. I live in a town.

Our DSs’ school won’t let them walk to/from school alone until they’re in Y6 - i.e. they have to be accompanied by an adult at drop-off until then. We’re in a large town.

The school is happy to let kids go back and forward to school independently from Y5. We're in a safe suburban area with decent road crossings.

As it happens, my y5 ds walk with me regardless as I'm taking in his younger sibling anyway. Sometimes he peels off when he catches up with a friend en route.

Allowed (by school) for the last term of Year 4.

year 5. quiet village, no roads to cross. TBH he could`ve done it end of year 4.

Our school are happy to let children walk to and from school by themselves from y5 with parental consent.

I won't be consenting as children have to cross a four way crossroads with no lollipop person. The view one way is obscured by a wall and the streets are often lined with parked cars. Far too dangerous in my opinion.

We lived in a small village but there was a busy road to get over. Our school allowed it from year 4 and my youngest was an Aug baby so just turned 8. However she was with older sibling. We crossed them over busy road in front of house and kept an eye out at end of day, could normally hear them coming and pedestrian crossing was luckily in front of our house. I think it does depend a bit on nature of child. If they can cross a road safely and the roads are pretty minor then fine. Me and my brother's walked to primary school from very young. One day we were met halfway by our 4 year old preschool brother who had his bike in one hand and our German Shepherd dog beside him. Mum had not noticed he had gone and he had made it half a mile. We were very impressed!!

High school so age 11 - school don’t allow it until year 6

Our school will let a child out of school alone from the start of Y6, although there’s nothing to stop anyone walking to school alone sooner.

A lot depends on distance - we’re about ten minutes / half a mile away with no main roads to cross - as well as the child. My Y6 only started coming home alone in January, whereas my sensible Y4 is champing at the bit and is quite cross she has another full year after this one before she will be able to!

I would say no sooner than year 6 but obviously depends hugely on location, how many roads etc.

DS's Primary said that Year 5 was the time they agreed the kids could walk home/to school alone and would let them go without an adult to collect. DS is a July birthday, so he was just 9.

We live in a small town, villagey feel. He was probably the furthest pupil away from school, the walk was down a main road (although he could have taken the back way, over some banking). He didn't have to cross the main road, but obviously crossed busy roads (without crossings) off the main road. Would have taken him 20 minutes to walk.

My 10 year old yr 5 DD is walking home today for the first time. It's a fairly small village, one big (rural big, so not really big!) road to cross. Will take about 15 minutes. I'm sure she'll be fine!

Year 5, school actively encouraged children to get to and from school alone. Inner city London.

Year 3, London suburb. DD is the only one regularly doing it, although others do less frequently.

Our school allows it from primary 4 so age 7 or 8. My dd didn't want to walk alone until she was 9 though. School is around 1km from our house with no main roads.

Small village in the Netherlands, I can see the school, and one quiet road to cross with zebra crossing. When he was 6 the school asked me why I was still bringing him, so he's been going on his own since he was 6 or 7.
The children here are much more independent/ streetwise but at 9 he wouldn't, for example, be able to break down and analyse sentence structure in the same way his UK cousins can. I was at their homework. On the other hand he is more than capable of going shopping, preparing a meal, using a bank account, and knows about sex, mortgages, debt, and phishing scams.

My school lets them walk home alone at yr 6. I drop them at breakfast club so going to school a non-issue.

I wouldn't let my 8 year old but will let her in year 6 probably (age 10). It isn't too far and only three roads to cross but those can be quite busy around school time.

End of year 4 here kids start to walk by themselves as by year 5 the majority of kids walk.

Similar here in Germany Baroness, kids learn how to walk to school safely before they learn to read (at about age 6).

But the big difference here is that as a car driver you always have responsibility (even if they step out in front of your car) and most quiet residential streets have a 30kph limit.

Year 4 here but that's because we have middle schools for years 5-8 and they're expected to get too and from middle school themselves as they're on the edge of town.

Here (rural) it seems to be P4 so 8-9years old. Our area has a 50mph limit but the lights flash to reduce the speed limit to 20mph at school closure. 80% of drivers stick to the 20mph.

Other parents, myself included, are happy to help the older ones cross the road if required. They usually cross the road at the same time as parents with wee ones anyway.

I'm wondering how schools can actually stop you from letting your child walk to school. I let mine walk alone from year 4. It's a less than 2 minute walk in a village location, but no pavement and lots of parents' cars outside school.

The school does not stop you, but they might not let child out if school without an adult at the end of the day.

We live in a small city and the school says kids can walk to/from school on their own only in Y6 (age 10-11), so DS1 has been walking all this year. The council recently put in a proper zebra crossing on the only road he has to cross, which I'm delighted about, as that was the one hazard he had to negotiate. He's very independent though and was determined to walk on his own as soon as it was allowed. I was just like him - champing at the bit to be allowed to do things on my own. I do think kids these days are much more constrained than we were and it makes me feel frustrated on their behalf.