What would you think to a year 3 child, walking to and from school alone everyday, coming home to an empty home till about 5.30pm, and spending all the summer holidays at home alone

[Lardlizard]

Apart from the odd week or two the mum could take off work for holidays rest of the time the child is home alone

Walking home and being alone until mum comes back might well be OK depending on the child. Also whether neighbours are around and how safe the route is.

The summer holidays doesn't sound OK to me at that age, no.

Completely off topic, but I wish when people talked of children they'd give their ages instead of school year (unless it's directly related to school.). I don't have kids and when I was at school (many years ago) the school years were very different eg infants Reception, 1st year, second year; Juniors 1st year, 2nd year etc; secondary school 1st year, 2nd year etc.

So if someone says ''Y7 child'' I have no idea how old the child is! (Are they 12 or 13 in my example? I'm assuming it's the school year plus 5)

actually schools have no choice about letting a child go to and from school alone provided there is a letter from parents giving permission, it is not about school rules but about specific risk to a specific child if a year 3 child lives 2 minutes walk away from school with no roads to cross it is fine

personally in OP scenario I would not be worried re going to and from school unless it involved crossing 60mph roads unaided or similar, when I was a child everyone aged 7 went to school by themselves
however I do not think being a latch key kid for 2 hours every night and all the holidays is OK if it was till 3.30 or 4pm it might might just be OK

if the child was Y4/5/6 it would be Ok for sure to walk home
for a Y5/6 should definitely be Ok for at least 1-2 hours after school ( Y4 upto 1 hour ideally less) but still not all day in the holidays but a couple of hours would be Ok
my DD is P6 (Y5) and everyone in her class leaves school alone and did in Y4 too. The school only wait for parents for P1 & P2 the others are told to go back if they were expecting someone and they are not there small village school on quiet streets in housing estate
I would leave her alone for upto an hour after school about once in 2 weeks as not back from work till about 4.30 but she is very sensible

only year 6 are allowed to leave our primary school without someone there to collect them

@Runnerduck34 it may not be seen as acceptable anymore

but the reality is that it is not more dangerous for 7 year olds than it was in 1970-90's
the number of car accidents involving pedestrians has fallen dramatically and stanger danger has not changed for decades
when I was at school it would be embarrassing for anyone except first year infants to have parents waiting for you only excuse would be a younger sibling it was considered quite acceptable for a 5 year old to go home with 7-8 year old sibling

I had a very bright sensible son who (due to clashing of clubs) spent a few Thursday evenings walking the 2/3 mile home and waiting till we got back about half an hour later.

After a couple of occasions he asked if we could make different arrangements because he didn't like being in the house on his own (we managed it with help from a friend).

He would have been in Year 3 at the time.

@serendipity79 that can't be enforced

My kids school wouldn't have a clue how a child gets to school in the morning, how do all these schools not allow it? How do they know, unless the child tells them?

Having said that, I'd also think this whole set up is neglectful.

Would school allow a Year 3 child to leave the premises without an adult? Ours aren't allowed to until Year 5

I asked this on another thread but are there really schools that carry on with the teacher letting each child out of the playground one by one until year 5? DS' school did it until Y2.

I did this in the 90s with a younger brother in tow. I made him toast, we were fine. Neighbours we knew everywhere though.

isabellerossignol my niece and nephews primary, when the end of the day came the teacher opens the door and when they see the kids parent they call out their name “Amy your mums here” and then Amy leaves.

@cologne4711 yes there are. We dismiss one by one to parents, unless it is a year 5 or 6 child with written permission to leave alone.

Parent (s) are being neglectful. Call social services

My children’s school did it until year 6. All children had to be released to a responsible adult. They absolutely DID enforce it.

As for the OP - i would think it’s very inappropriate for a year 3 child. (though I did have a parent threaten to call social services on me because I allowed Year 9 (age 13) Ds to stay home alone all day on a snow day!!

isabellerossignol my niece and nephews primary, when the end of the day came the teacher opens the door and when they see the kids parent they call out their name “Amy your mums here” and then Amy leaves.

I know that's pretty common, my child's school does that too, for the first three years. But how do they know how a child gets to school in the morning?

Yeah social services, not letting my kids walk on there own til 10 or 11

Ds school the teachers at least make eye contact with the teachers for all pupils unless they have written consent for the year 5/6 pupils to walk home.

It’s harder to police at drop off time but the ks1 parents all take the children to the door where the teacher is so they would know for the younger ones but not older

@comefromaway they can't enforce it if a parent writes to school saying I give permission for joe Bloggs to leave school my himself and walk home
The only thing that is true is if Mrs bloggs is due to collect Joe Bloggs they can't let Joe go in absence of mrs Bloggs however if mrs Bloggs says Joe can walk home they can't detain Joe beyond school finishing time because mrs Bloggs is not there

The school can only object if it is truly a risk for joe Bloggs to walk home ie it is beyond Joe bloggs capabilities to walk home safely the risk has to be assessed for that child it might be OK for Joe bloggs to walk 10 minutes but not OK for Joan Smith
they can't refuse the permission of Joe's parents because it would not be safe for Joan
Once social services know the parent has given permission for them to leave alone they will not be interested unless it is a genuine risk for Joe; social work are not remotely interested in rules at school X as a reason

We're not allowed on the school grounds at drop off, so we never see the teachers. We leave them at the gate.

They wouldn’t know in the morning really

I have an 8 year old in Year 3

If i knew one his school friends was in that situation i would report to the school who i expect would report to SS

If it was me doing it i would be expecting a visit from SS

Hard situation on the parent if they are struggling with childcare but that is not a viable solution

Is this another of your threads @Lardlizard where you just post an OP and then disappear? Why do you not engage with people who bother to answer you?

Yeah, I thought that too.

Would have been totally normal in 80s. Another one asking to use ages rather than (presumably English) school years. I have no idea if a year 3 child is 7 or 17.

When I was young pretty much everyone walked back home from school alone or with other kids from about the age of 7 (juniors). This is also the norm in most European countries.

Most days there would be someone home but I had my own key.

I’m not too bothered about the walking to and from school - my kids school allows and even encourage it from P4 (so age 8).
However, being in the house alone for a few hours and for full days is completely not acceptable.