To report two infant age children walking to school alone

[ThePosieParker]

... to the head of the school.

This morning I saw two siblings (I assume) walking to school alone, the oldest looked about yr2 at the most and the youngest a reception child. I wanted to phone the school as there could be a number of reasons these children are walking alone, not all sinister but in my mind none good enough,. This is Bristol, a busy city, not the place to allow children to cross roads and negotiate traffic and people at the age of 6 or below, surely.

If a child hasn't got to cross a road they usually still heve to walk near a doad and a child under 7 can easily get distracted or run out into the road to get something they have seen, Also they have to walk to the lollipop person for that person to be able to asist them. They may decide it is easier or quicker to cros the road before then,
This is from the Dirctgov website:
It can be hard for motorists to see small children, especially when they are reversing, so take extra care. Never let your child go near a road alone or even with an older child. Children are generally not ready to cross roads on their own until they are at least eight years old - and many will not be ready even then

So the whole of Scandinavia must be littered with dead children then, since its very common there to walk to school alone under the age of eight.
No, wait a minute, they don't. How is it possible?

Perhaps they have left trafic or people drive more carefully over there. But here is another quote
Around 1,400 children aged 0?11 are killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads every year. That's around 27 children a week.
I certainly wouldn't risk a child under 8 walking to school by themselves.

I mean less not left traffic.

I agree with Hatesponge a couple of pages back.

I believe that the NSPCC would have been a better place to discuss your concerns rather than SSD or the childrens school.

You could have done this anonymously, in confidence and without naming the children. I assume that you made your report to SSD anonymously tho' this is no guarantee that the parent/s will not identify you.

As for sweary 5 yr olds and smoking 9 yr olds [they pinch the cigarettes from packets lying around at home] - this sort of behaviour would not reach any SSD threshhold for involvement. SSD are focussed on under 2s who are being physically abused and at risk of dying or being brain-damaged.

The tiny unsupervised ?toddlers are a different matter? And if completely unsupervised - no older sibs in charge or no obvious adult oversight. Think about calling the police.

Then our problem is with drivers, not with children. If child deaths in cars are on the rise, should we advise people to stop putting their children in the car?

YABVU, OP

Buzz - I (and others) mentioned that about 400 pages ago [bgrin] children routinely walk to school with their siblings/friends in other countries - it's only perceived to be unsafe here and made more so by parents driving so many kids to school. If more children walked to school then it would be much safer (more people walking & less cars) - but that's bad parenting apparently

Yes but Chipping...what about all the paedophiles???!!! [not being serious emoticon]

Poseyparker

You know what I have been on both ends of this...

I once saw too young kids walking alone in the middle of the day. I stopped the car to ask if they were ok.
They were reception children who had absconded from school on a little adventure. They got spooked when I said I was a bit worried about them crossing roads and could I ring their school and ran for it. I called the police but the kids reached school before the police caught up with them. School hadn't noticed they were gone.
Now I dont recommend that people approach unaccompanied children but I did for many reasons (I have enhanced CRB, it was a busy streeet, lots of pedestrians, in front of a busy building site, etc)

I then followed it up with the police and the school to express concerns. The police rang me to pass on Thanks from the parents.

Now for the other end...

My son was spotted (by another parent like you) hanging about near school alone, yr 1 age. He was with no adult and was near a busy road. Eventually he appeared to run back to his 'parent' but this after a number of minutes of being unattended.

The person who spotted him reported it, not to social services, but to school. She reported that 'his mother' had left him unattended by a main road.

Only his mother hadn't... his childminder had... the childminder that the parent observing wasn't aware he had but Thank god the school did.

The parent and I have talked about it. She was mortified that she had been so close to reporting me to social services and so relieved that she had spoke to the school first.

You were right to report it but should have spoke to the school. The school might know of circumstances that are not obviously apparent.

siobahnagain makes a good point about the NSPCC - I have had to ring them on a couple of occasions for advice, they really are brilliant, cannot recommend them highly enough, and if you want to they offer to take down all the details and take it over, that is to say they will decide who to call etc., takes it out of your hands. Although no substitute for local knowledge of course, its another option that some people might not have been aware of.

How funny that the op said she didn't have time to phone anyone other than Ss and yet she can find the time to spend half the day on mumsnet!

Ivie That's exactly what I said, and I've asked her why, a few times, but she has not offered an explanation; which is what makes me wonder if any of this did in fact happen.

Perhaps there is less traffic in other countries round about school opening time. Might be something to do with fewer parents taking their children to school by car...

Personally I think not only dcs, but I myself, would be an awful lot safer if there were fewer cars around at 8.30 in the morning.

Not to mention that a fair proportion of the children injured by traffic every year were actually in a car being driven by a parent at the time. Going by car is not necessarily safer.

OP, it's simple. You were not BU to feel concern. We can't help how we feel and your instinct - rightly ir wrngly - was that these two children were too small to walking to school.

You were thereforre not BU to feel the need to 'do something'

You know, I think, that you should have held out until you could get through to the school. You should have gone there - regardless of how inconvenience it was, and mentioned your concern to the HT. To say that going to the school would have been 'ridiculous' is 'ridiculous' when in fact what you did, was far more 'extreme'.

I think you were genuinely worried and just wanted to pass the 'responsibility' of your concerns to someone, anyone, else. So you called SS, not giving any consideration to the potential minefield you might be causing to a family.

I think you were well intentioned but I don't agree with your course of action.

inconvenient and or wrongly

Predictive text, my arse.