Is your Y7 child...

[Serendipity09]

Travelling to their new secondary school alone/with friends?
My DCs school is less than a mile away, it never entered my head to drive them there. She has local friends to walk with.
I have suddenly realised that many are being driven, or even walked, to school by parents. All children would have less than a half hour walk.
Is this normal now?

My child is primary 6 (Age 10). Walks to and from school with friends. Almost a mile. She will definitely be doing the same for high school. I will be taking her younger sibling to school driving her will not be an option. Even if it was I think walking is better.

I might drive her for very first day if she wanted me to.

Walking with friends, and it's about 45 mins walk by the time they've called for each other.

Thank you for your replies. My older DC all walked from day one, as did all their friends, and I assumed that was still what was the norm.
I think it's good exercise if nothing else.. especially when PE and other clubs are cancelled at the moment.
Plus the social aspect of it.

DS1's new school is 3 miles away. Public transport would mean a journey of over an hour (walk, bus, train, walk) & roads are not suitable for cycling. So he will have to be driven, at least for the time being.

Sounds like some parents need to cut the apron strings.

It's just really dependent on where you live isn't it. My daughter will be walking but she lives a 20min walk from the new school. Others who are crossing boroughs etc or live remotely will have to be driven or bussed. Not a matter for judgement really.

I'm not judging anyone, fully understand that it is just not practical for some children to walk to school.
Its just that our school has a very small catchment area, almost all pupils live a mile or under away, not an unsafe area, my older DC started there 10 years ago and everyone walked. I was just surprised that some children are being driven, or even walked, to secondary school and wondered if this was the norm now.

Are they allowed to walk together? We aren’t allowed to walk with any other households

Yes, I haven't heard that they're not anyway.

Are you in England Rosie?

my son’s just going into year 8 but he normally walks with friends. it’s about a twenty minute walk. i’ll drive him and his friends if it’s raining or he’s late though. i’ve just asked him and he said last year no one in year 7 had their parent walk them to school, even on the first day.

Mine has just under a mile to travel, so will be walking either alone or with friends. We've been practising the walk with him over the holidays as there's a few biggish roads to cross. I'm planning to walk him over our road as a starting point, as that's the busiest of all the roads he needs to cross, but he can get the rest of the way on his own and is keen to do so.

Mines got a 15 minute walk which at least for the first few days will be on his own. We don’t live on the same route as his friends. I’m hoping within a week or so he will have made acquaintances with kids on his route!

I’m a wee bit nervous he will be walking all alone, I have to admit.

DS starts on Thursday. Before Covid the plan was we would drop him on his first morning and pick him up but after that he’d be on the bus, which is a public service as opposed to a school bus, there and back everyday.

School have requested for pupils not to use public transport unless there’s no alternative. DP is WFH for the foreseeable so he’ll run him, dropping and picking him up from a local leisure centre car park a couple of minute walk away.

DS’s new school is 10 miles away. We will do a mixture of bus and driving him. School aren’t keen for them to use public transport at the moment though. We live rurally and the bus only runs every 2 hours so we’ll need to be flexible!

ShoesJerry this is very similar to us. Just under a mile, two biggish roads but one has a pedestrian crossing, we've practised a few times, and she's had a walk there and back with a friend.

Good to know others will be walking!
I obviously know you can't walk if you lives miles away or there's another reason, but surely under a mile with others who live in the same road there's no need to be driven/walked in?
I would offer if it's torrential rain, or some other reason, but not as the norm

DS is about to start yr7 & his school is
1 1/2miles away. He’ll be walking every day unless it is raining.

My DD is walking, if it’s within reason then they need to learn to become independent and walking helps aid that. I would have been mortified that my parents were taking me to school if it was reasonable to walk.

Yes, same here eeyore. I think I just felt like I was 'out of the loop' when I heard about so many being taken, as I think by the time it's your third, you just do whatever the older ones did and don't really think about it!

having said that, she is the most anxious of the three so I am slightly more apprehensive about her starting than I was about the others.

However, I want to start as I mean to go on and I think walking the 15/20 mins will be good for her in lots of ways. She knows I'm at the end of the phone and can be there in minutes if she needs me.

DS1 is about to start y7 - his new school is about 1.5 miles away. I will drive him there the first afternoon (short y7 only session), so he doesn't get concerned about getting there on time, but he is intending to walk home. He will be walking from then on.

He has the option to take the train as well. I may give him a lift in extreme weather, but I still have a younger one to get to primary (which is in the opposite direction) so that is not something I want to do too regularly.