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Original poster

What age do you let your children walk to school alone?

64 replies

Soubriquet · 31/03/2022 09:11

And how many roads would they have to cross?

Dc’s school have a policy that children can do the school run alone from year 5 but year 6 is preferable.

Mine are year 2 and 4, so not walking alone yet.

When they do, they would have to cross one ‘main’ road (which I would supervise as it’s outside our house) and one back road.

The main road is the only road through the village but even then it’s not overly busy.

The back road sees a maximum of 10 cars a day.

OP posts:
SpringLobelia · 31/03/2022 21:10

Not primary. Not now (Y7) but he has SEN and his school is a 40 minute drive away. However I certainly see some of his classmates walking home probably up to 2.5 km (the route was a recent cross country run so I know the distance completely). For myself I would not feel comfortable allowing 11 and 12 year olds to walk home on their own, but understand fully the perameters are very different for NT children.

Vallmo47 · 31/03/2022 21:13

My son never did it in primary because he has a younger sibling that I had to take to the same school, this is fairly common where I am! I’m happy to go with flow this time around but it’s likely going to be Year 6 before I let it happen more regularly. There’s 3 roads to cross, two minor ones where she’d have to look in 3 directions and 1 major with a zebra crossing. I’m truly not confident she’s quite there yet but we are working on it.

Thursday37 · 31/03/2022 21:13

If our house purchase completes the new village school is 90 seconds walk up a dead end lane, no roads to cross.

If we stay put it’s 1 mile up a horrendously fast village road with no pavement so that will always have to be by car. I’m hoping we move!

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NoKnit · 31/03/2022 21:13

Not in UK so the norm here is when they start school.

Oldest had just turned 7
Youngest will be 6

School about 500 metres away

I personally think children in uk are babied way too long. A 9 year old (that is year 5 isn't it?) is perfectly capable to get themselves to school. I don't understand what has gone wrong as it was the norm to walk to school from age 7 in the UK when I was in school in the 1980s

I also can't fathom how the school can 'allow' it or not. What happens if you send your 8 year old to school alone, what can the school do? Refuse to educate the child? Bonkers

popandchoc · 31/03/2022 21:13

My daughter started a couple of months ago - year 6 and almost 11. She has to cross our road twice which is pretty quiet and then one busier road. She will be walking to secondary school in sept where she has to cross dual carriageways (with pedestrian crossings) so getting her used to it.

MrsPear · 31/03/2022 21:13

Year 6 - we are in Kent /London borders so very busy. You can’t rush and cross. Let me think 4 side roads - all close’s rather than through roads so not busy - and a main road very busy plus there is the bus, lorries etc And he cuts through the woods. He is year 7 and always with a friend as most walk. I still say be careful of the roads every morning. It takes 20 minutes.

HalfShrunkMoreToGo · 31/03/2022 21:14

DD is desperate to but she's only yr 3 (7yo), school has a rule that they have to be yr 5 before they can walk in alone, and I think we'll let her as soon as she starts yr 5, but, and it is very important, we live on the same road as the school so there are no concerns with distance or big roads.

What age do you let your children walk to school alone?
MrsPear · 31/03/2022 21:15

He is has offered to walk his brother home - age 9 year 4 - but I said no as I don’t trust his brother to behave around the main road

TheCanyon · 31/03/2022 21:19

Our school is from p3/p4, so 6/7. There's a few quiet side roads but no main road to cross unless you were going to town 15 min walk away and I don't see any parent letting their child walk that themselves.

We live right beside the school though, the youngest two (7) still want us to walk them to school but come home themselves.

HorribleHerstory · 31/03/2022 21:25

8/9, year 4/5

Had to do 2 miles there and 2 miles back including road bridges, motorway underpass, roads without pavements, stiles, fields with varying livestock and sections of unlit wooded areas at 11, often in the dark in winter, so needed to build up to that or it would have been a shock.

FTEngineerM · 31/03/2022 21:28

I lived opposite our primary so I walked in from super young, and walked home on my lunch and back. But we’re talking dead end road and our house was next to it.

HairyScaryMonster · 31/03/2022 21:34

It's frustrating, our house practically backs onto the lower school (up to y4) cross the road and walk up a path. But not allowed. But when she starts y5 and has to walk 1.5 miles, well that's fine.

Svara · 31/03/2022 21:38

We lived a mile and a half from school. From year 3 I often walked DS most of the way and he'd walk the last third of a mile, from quiet side streets, along the school road, crossing a zebra crossing near school. Year 5 he moved schools and caught the school bus, bus stop was one street over from ours and he walked to and from the bus stop on his own.

Taswama · 31/03/2022 21:46

Summer term of year 5 I gave DS his own key and he came home alone twice a week. The two days were when DP was wfh. The other days he went to after school club with DS2.
In year 6 he did 4 days out of 5.

BogRollBOGOF · 31/03/2022 21:54

DSs y4 & y6 have walked home together recently when I'm not avaliable and it saves DH disturbing work. One straightforward road to cross and we're just up the road from school.
DS(11) has started walking to school on his early mornings as it saves me going back and forwards and I can concentrate on getting DS2 ready as the timing is otherwise awkward.

We are 5 months away from DS1 having a mile's walk to the bus stop then catching the bus. I haven't worked out the logistics yet, but if DS1 is not ready (he has high functioning ASD) I may have to let DS2 walk himself (y5) and facilitate DS1.

Tdcp · 31/03/2022 21:58

Year 5 I would if I lived closer. As it stands I have to drive DD every day.

Mamas123 · 31/03/2022 22:02

Depends on the child themselves and how independent/grown up they are tbh

sabrinatheteenagemortal · 31/03/2022 22:03

My school is a lower school so they are allowed to walk on their own in the final year, year 4. I believe the vast majority of the year 5s walk alone to middle school. I think it's to young, personally.

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 31/03/2022 22:08

Sort of Y6 for us - but realistically their little brother needed walking in at the same time to the same school so they were just walking ahead of dad. They are allowed from Y5 and we would have allowed this had we not (at the time) lived right next to a very busy road.

Reality was Y7.

Mummadeze · 31/03/2022 22:13

It’s also about when they feel ready. Our DD wasn’t ready until Year 8 (13 years old). But she got there in the end.

Flickflak · 31/03/2022 22:17

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FreezyFreezy · 31/03/2022 22:20

Year 5 so aged 9. It's about half a mile, a 10 minute walk away. They can go to the shop alone too, which is not quite as far the other way. They enjoy the feeling of responsibility and of being able to look after themselves.

OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 31/03/2022 22:24

Mine is year 5, and he could now but I enjoy the walk with him if I'm on a day off and when working he gets picked up by the childminder. He would love to go himself. We've let him and friends walk home before when they begged to after we all turned up in cars for various reasons and the kids wanted to walk. They took forever! It is only just over 1 mile, countryside and mostly on footpath nowhere near road. A couple of roads either end as school is in the next village. The kids have played out unsupervised for several years so no reason why they can't walk to school. I think mine by himself would walk quickly and sensibly, I think one friend would very much not which would probably stress mine out.

I wouldn't have let dd walk herself at that age. She wouldn't have got run over but would have forgotten which way to go (it is a straight line, you can't go wrong), panicked, spotted a butterfly and followed it, spent 20 minutes watching a robin, a further 30 minutes picking blackberries, trodden in dog poo, realised she was late for school and lost and cried. Thankfully she is now in year 8 and adept at getting the bus. Though my goodness teaching her that was a painful experience.

caprimoon · 31/03/2022 22:39

I let my Y4 aged 8 DD walk home (less than 10 minutes along the village main road), don't let her walk there alone yet.

It started as I and younger DD had Covid and so I've let it continue.

Fabtasticfanatic · 31/03/2022 23:04

Summer term of year 6 - until this week we hadn't had a crossing patroller on the main road for about 3 years. The council have finally managed to recruit someone. Its over a mile to the school with only one main road but very dangerous as its near a bend on the entrance to the village and cars come up way too fast. He will have to walk 2 miles in the other direction to secondary but the only main road that way has a pedestrian crossing.