To wish schools did a collection and delivery service, they could do it to raise funds for the school

[RedCherryPie]

Say if you live within a ten min walk

You should be able to pay say a pound to have your child walked home

That would be so handy

As I have a baby asleep upstairs
And now I'm going to have to get the baby up just to go on use school run

Yes I could ask a friend to drop off my eldest, but I don't like to take advantage and would rather save favours for emergencys

It's not a pound for 5 minutes work though - at the very least they have to walk back to school after dropoff so the time doubles. No-one would do this for just one child for just one pound, you'd need to have a decent number to make it worth doing. Say six kids minimum. Mustering six kids, dealing with the fact that one has forgotten their jumper and another has forgotten their bookbag, then walking a zig-zag route to each of 6 different houses all in the same general direction but not in a straight line, would take more than half an hour all-in and requires a level of competency and level-headedness that means you wouldn't want just anyone doing it, they would need to be CRB checked and have had some basic health&safety and first-aid training.

I don't think the schools would make any money at all offering a service like this. more likely a loss.

When I said the going rate was £1 in the 70s I should have made it clear that it was other parents doing the collecting.

Seems a non-goer, it would only work for parents who were at home during the day but couldn't or didn't want to pick them up for whatever reason and were within easy walking distance

The costs alone would be prohibitive. Not to mention the admin and recruiting a member of staff (possibly two dependent on numbers) to work an hour in the morning and the evening? The wage, NI, insurance CRB check and training for that person would be expensive and a huge hassle for the school. So would be unlikely to generate money for school funds.

Who would sort out if the child had paid to be walked home or not? If they haven't paid who persues the parents? Is the child then just left to get home under their own scheme?

Who would plot the route and then re-plot it when people drop out/opt in to the scheme? What if the parent isn't in when the drop the child off, does everyone hang on until they show up and then field frantic phonecalls from parents whose children are late home? Or plough on leaving the child outside the house?

Why can't your child walk home herself? A mature seven year old should be capable of that.

LOL @ £1.

Does your school have an after school club? You could use that if your baby naps in the afternoons. It will cost more than a pound though.

I thought you were going to suggest parents could give the school address to online retailers so goods could be delivered to the school. The parents wouldn't have to stay in all day to recieve the goods and they could collect them easily from school when they picked up the kids. This sounded like a totally brilliant idea! I would definitely pay for it.

Getting parcels delivered to the school is an amazing idea.

I think it would just be easier to put the baby in the pram, if it fully reclines.

I don't like the idea of a walking bus.

I would imagine there would be some insurance in place for the walker, possibly training, and first aid too

If a pounds is not enough

How much. Is enough

Walking buses are a great idea, but we had a few children turned down for collection when they didn't listen to the adults and nearly ended up as roadkill. I do agree that it's something parents and the PTA need to be involved in organising though.

This is not the sort of thing schools should be concentrating their efforts on at all, if parents want it, then that's what the PTA is for.

It is nit a schools responsibility to worry about the inconvenience to your day of picking up or dropping your own child of at school, they kind of have enough to do what with educating children and all. Taking children to and from school is a parents job.

You could join the PTA and suggest it, but if you want it to happen then you are going to have to be instrumental in making it happen, small voluntary organisations don't usually take to kindly to having extra work suggested to them when it's unaccompanied by an offer of help, and it sounds like you'd rather just have other people do stuff for you.

Who are the school going to get to do this?

Random paedos

If your baby is due a nap in the afternoon just put them to sleep in their pram. Then if they're still asleep at pick up time you don't have to wake them. I do this all the time.

there should be minibus services.

Could you have your baby take later naps in the pushchair so if they sleep late they can just be wheeled out the door?

Mine always napped at pickup time. I became a dab hand at transferring them from cot to buggy without waking them (which takes some doing when you're 6m pregnant and carrying a sleeping 3yo downstairs!). And if they fell asleep in the buggy while walking home from somewhere, I just left them in it until pickup time.

I've never heard of a homeward walking bus, as what do you do if there's nobody at home?

Don't know why some people bother having children.

God, I hope Mr Gove doesn't read Mumsnet... as a HT, I'll just add this to my never-ending list of task I am asked to do that should really be the responsibility of the parents

Blimey in the old days babies coped with being picked up and put in a buggy for the school run. Are the 2014 varieties more fragile?

Families seem to get more needy by the month.

Yes, maybe if the op doubles her offer to two qiid yhe teachers will take the kid homd with them for thd evening.

Would you like us to arrange a route that allows us to wake them up, wash, dress and feed them too?

Maybe we could build a dorm for them to sleep in, to save them having to walk home at night and also, so we don't have to travel as far in the mornings... pshaw!!

Er yeah but that would mean paying extra staff - they'd probably have to be specially trained as well. Not that walking 5-10 mins down the road with a primary school child would be v.difficult but they'd have to be risk assessments (in case they were sued) and all sorts.

Your pound wouldn't go very far to pay for all that!