To expect my DCs (Yr 7&9) to walk 40 mins to school and home again.

[Lauresbadhairday]

My DCs are at an independent school and therefore most of the children live some distance away and are dropped off and picked up from school by parents every day. We live a 40 min walk away and I think my DCs should be able to manage this to and from school. They are 12 & 14.

They moan daily about walking - "it's too far", "my bag's too heavy, "it's raining", "none of my friends walk" etc, etc.

Now by my own admission I have been too soft and have dropped them off/picked them up quite frequently however I really want this to stop and for them to walk. I am getting much tougher and have not given them a lift at all since half-term but the moaning continues.

So, AIBU in making them walk 40 mins to school and back? If the general consensus is that I am then I will suck it up and give them a lift but I really think at 12&14 they are perfectly capable of walking this distance daily.

What do you think people do if they haven't got a car?

Or they have to go to work and haven't time to ferry kids to school?

I thought 40 minutes might be too much, but 1.5 miles is not. That should be closer to 25 minutes and if it takes them 40 I'd say the walk will be good for them to increase their fitness. I would expect children that age to cover considerably more than 2 miles per hour. YANBU, let them walk.

Okay, have only read page one of the thread admittedly, but already I am seeing why we have such an obesity/ lack of physical activity problem in this country. A 40 mins work is fine. My journey to work ds's nursery is 45 mins walking and I walk or run it pushing a toddler.
You do need to make sure they have the right gear in bad weather though, full waterproofs and a proper, well fitted rucksack type thing for their books etc.
Only if their gear is exceptionally heavy would you BU. and even then, with a proper rucksack, weight bearing is good for them
You don't want to raise them to be the lazy sods who think a 20 min walk is the max they should do or that walking up three flights of stairs or a ten minute lunchtime walk is excessive like my doomed to die early work colleagues,

God, just read the bit about it being unkind to make them walk in the rain. Are these children made of sugar? Will they dissolve? It is only water. It won't even touch them if they have waterproofs. only if it was that rare very heavy driving, bouncing off the pavement and you can't even properly see where you are going, type rain would I gve them a lift. It's just a psychological thing to think rain is so awful one should never go out in it. It can be quite nice being out in the rain in your waterproofs.

Just vaguely wondering what the kids are expected to do with their full set of waterproofs and boots when they get to school........

Indeed, BertrandRussell. If our DC go to school in rain boots they are doomed to wear them all day!

Well maybe someone should speak to the school about that, then. 2 years ago our local secondary took away the bike sheds. This year they are being forced to build new ones because people refused to say 'oh OK, won't cycle then.'

As it is patently reasonable for children to walk to school, schools should have somewhere to put coats, spare books, boots etc to make that possible. We don't have to buy into the new PPI design initiative if it doesn't work.

I totally agree that schools should have lockers to put things in.

My kids' waterproofs scrunch up pretty small, and can be squashed into a rucksack. I have to do that all the time when we're out and about. Cars are definitely more convenient, but for those of us who don't have them, it is not an insuperable barrier to have to stuff rainwear in a bag.

"As it is patently reasonable for children to walk to school, schools should have somewhere to put coats, spare books, boots etc to make that possible. We don't have to buy into the new PPI design initiative if it doesn't work."

And which bit of budget would you use to build lockers?

There will never, ever be any storage at our DCs' city centre schools. Square metres are far, far too expensive and valuable to be converted into cupboards.

I don't know Bertrand - give me a complete breakdown of your school's budget and I'll tell you. But let's not pretend that it is a totally unworkable or unreasonable suggestion.

At some of the local schools you pay £5/term for a locker if you want one, so ultimately they become self financing. Or maybe those parents who want one, could 'buy' a locker when their child starts at the school -the cost over 5-7 years wouldn't be that great.

If anything space is more likely to be a problem but even that can generally be overcome if only a percentage of pupils want a locker.

Ds pays for his locker.

Well, if the SMT, the governors, and the school's financial advisor have been unable to find either the space or the budget for lockers I would be very surprised if you could.

And self financing at £5 a term? Well, yes- in about 50 years..........

A very quick google suggests that you can easily buy them for £40 (Inc VAT and delivery) per individual locker. Quite likely you could get a bulk discount as well.

So you could start by seeing how many people would be prepared to pay £40 per child for use of a locker during their time at the school (the price quoted above is based on units of 16. And at £5 per term they'd be self financing in just under 3 years, not 50! After 3 years you can save up the money for repairs/replacements and probably make a profit too.

Space is a problem. But I'd be surprised if there wasn't room for a single locker anywhere in a secondary school (unless it really is a new PPI build in which case I agree).

That's exactly what happens at ds's school, if they want a locker they pay for it.

A mile and a half is nothing, and should not take 40 minutes surely.
Yes it is fine to make them walk.

We donmt have space for lockers. And even if only half the kids want them, we don't have 16,000 quid spare either.

I walked 30 mins to school and 30 mons back every day at that age. It was nothing at all?

Buying a locker? Seriously?

Also I did sports training several nights a week.

YANBU. Though perhaps give them a lift when the weather is really awful.

I walked 1.5 miles each way to school every day from 11-16. Parents didn't drive so no option but to walk. We are about to move 1.5 miles from my children's primary (they are age 5 and 8) and we will be walking or scootering. I find it incredible that anyone would think 3 miles a day is too far for teenage children to walk. Obviously they need a proper adjustable rucksack for carrying books, sensible shoes and a waterproof coat. Sorry - but what planet are some people living on? No wonder we have an obesity epidemic.

Fanjo -it works well and was well received when it was introduced.