Choosing a secondary school for dc

[Whywouldyoudothat123]

Hi all, my only DC is currently in primary school, in year 4. I currently walk him there and back.

At the moment he has no road sense whatsoever bless him and we are having to cross many main roads. I’m trying to teach him the safest ways to cross but I’m a little worried as his school encourages walking to school on their own in year 5… only a year away 😞

Anyway, my main question is this. Currently we live in an area where there are 3 secondary schools. One is very close by, a 10 min walk, or there are 2 others, both a 40 minute walk each. The closest is the local comprehensive , the others are a comp with a good reputation and a grammar school.

I’m completely undecided as to where to send him. We absolutely do not want to move as we are currently in area where we know and get in with all the neighbours and we couldn’t afford to move the other side of town. No bus routes.

My dc has made it clear he will not entertain me walking him to school which is fair enough but I do worry about him a lot and wonder what the right thing to do is. We will have to think about choosing in the next year or so and plan to visit them all but I just wondered if anyone had any advice or experience? Unfortunately driving is not an option.

If your main concern is him walking then I'm sure this will be a non-issue by the time he actually goes to secondary. Its years away yet. At 40 mins I imagine he'd cycle. Or bus.

If he's not ready/able you will have to get a taxi there then surely?

what I wouldn't do, is go from walking with him every step of the way to simply cutting the strings so to speak and now you're on your own. That's a recipe for an accident waiting to happen.

How long has he been walking with you? Do you discuss the 'how' of to cross a road every single time you walk? A lot can improve in a year. Any SN?

No special needs, can’t afford taxis and no bus routes 😞 he’s just not very aware of his surroundings like I thought most teenagers were

Its 2.5 years away. At 8/9, lots of kids are a bit daft.

My DDs school teaches road safety at the end of Yr4 to prepare for walking to and from school by themselves. Repeated in Yr5. (Shes Yr5).

They also seem to travel in packs!

My eldest is in Yr7... and they've grown up a lot since the end of Yr6.

I teach yr6, in comparison yr4 seem very, very young. Every year I worry about the fact that many yr6 are still very much children, how will they cope? Yet every year, they are fine.

DD walks for 40 minutes and that's the nearest school.

It's training, training, training. Talk about what to look out for, how to approach a crossing and start with smaller roads on his own with you observing.

They develop a lot in the time until secondary.

The last term of primary they grow up a lot.
The first term of Y7 they grow up even more.

Y4 is tiny. When you say he won't entertain you walking him to school, are you talking Y5 or Y7? If Y5, you can walk him part way. If Y7, make a decision much closer to the time. I'd choose the best school for the 5/7 years he will be there, not the Y6 he is when you apply.

Thanks for your replies, they are reassuring.

Two of his class friends do actually walk part of the way if not all of the way by themselves, which is why he wants to do it, but I know for a fact that their parents either start work early (or don’t care!) I have tried letting him do it by himself with me watching , or asking when he thinks it’s safe to cross, and he fails every time.

There’s a couple of main roads with no pedestrian crossings which have to rely on catching a drivers eye and someone stopping , something I never learned myself until I was a late aged teenager.

I just know that sometimes people move to be closer to the desired school, my DC has actually asked me this a few times whether we are moving (!!) to be met with no. I also worry about him walking past the closer schools to get to the furthest away ones with different uniform on - I don’t want him to be picked on 😞

It’s just so difficult. He’s a very bright boy (apart from the road sense) and I want him to do well wherever he is. I guess I’m going to have to wait for him to grow up in the next couple of years.