...at what age do your DC go by themselves to school (assuming school is in walking distance)? I see so many 'school run' threads and it seems like up to a certain age they're escorted to the gate and...handed off to a teacher/minder? Or just let to go in the gate, but escorted by Mum/Dad/minder the whole way? I know that in a lot of cases they have to be taken by car because of overcrowded schools, but if the school is walking distance, what then?
Where I live (which is a smallish rural town with a hospital and a university being its biggest employers), only the kindergarteners (Reception?) and first graders really are walked right up to the school. Mostly the kids walk in groups - for some of the littles there is a "walking school bus" which is one adult with five or six littles on a particular route. But my DC and all their friends, except in freezing/snowy/icy/very hot weather, have been leaving the house and getting on to school since third grade, which is 7-8 years old. Granted, the way the K-5 schools are set up, no one lives more than a mile from one if that.