What would consider an acceptable age for your child to catch the bus?

[wingingitsendsnacks]

DS is starting secondary school next year and wants to catch the bus, it would be a public bus and when he starts he would be getting the bus on his own.
I would be able to drop him at the stop (on way to siblings school) and he would just have to get off at the stop outside school.
It would help with the drop off and getting to work logistics but he would still only be 11.
Is this too young or a good age for independence?

I can understand being a bit nervous. An infrequent bus in a rural location is quite different to the number 15 that goes along Oxford Street.

He will need a mobile phone in case the bus just doesn’t turn up. Is there a bus times app in your area?

Thank you, yes not quite the same as the bus network in London! The school do allow the kids to have a dumb phone so he can call if something doesn't go to plan. I can get an app with bus times to check on my phone, just not on his.

I'll get the bus with him during the summer to make sure he knows the route. I guess it's just getting him familiar to how it works and having a back up plan in case he misses it or misses his stop.

Yes it’s fine at this age. My daughter and her friends caught their first bus together about a month ago at nearly 12.

I know it feels daunting now but he will be nearly a year older when he starts. It’s fairly normal for children to use the bus for secondary school. I felt ill with nerves and it’s a 10 min journey for mine but it was so new.

My DCs started travelling on the bus alone at around age 8 or 9 (outer London). They enjoyed it.

It’s fine, especially with other children on the bus.

Mine were getting the bus to and from
school from age 5 and then to other other places from about age 9/10.

and they walked to and from the bus stop from P4 age 7/8 by themselves

Mine started getting the public bus to school in the summer of Year 5 - and took her year 4 sister too. She was with a friend in her form so not quite the same. (And one day I got the next bus and the day after her friends dad drove behind hers.....). Round here schools really encourage it from year 6 to get them secondary ready. I'm all for getting them to develop their independence.

This is what my DD did when she started secondary. She did have friends who got on along the route though.
She was fine.

I practiced with her in the summer holidays then she and her friend did a practice run by themselves