Aibu to ask when and why it became the norm for schools not to allow juniors to make their own way home?

[RedHelenB]

Seems they need parents to collect them from the class teacher up until y5 or 6 now, whereas a few years ago my dc orimary school.Just let them out at hometime and stonewalled home, somewhere collected by older siblings and some by oarents. Just one staff member by the junior entrance.

Year 5 and 6 are still young. I'd definitely not allow my child to walk home alone before this age (or even at this age!).

I went to primary school in the eighties, it was a rite of passage that year six were allowed to walk home workout being collected by an adult, anyone younger wasn't. This was 25 years ago.

@RewildingAmbridge

I went to primary school in the eighties, it was a rite of passage that year six were allowed to walk home workout being collected by an adult, anyone younger wasn't. This was 25 years ago.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the eighties was 33 plus years ago 😬

The vast majority of y5 walk to and from school where I am, and certainly no one collects any y5 (unless SN) from inside the school, parents are not allowed in.

My DC were at primary in the 2000s and were not allowed to leave school alone until year 6.

@TooManyPJs 😁 I feel very old, started school/nursery in the eighties by the time I was actually year six it was actually 1995/6

I think it must vary by school. I left primary school in the late 90s, and only year 6 were allowed to leave without being collected.
I remember begging my mam to let me walk by myself. It made no sense since she was there collecting my younger sibling anyway, but I desperately wanted to do it!

I used to walk to and from school at 5 years old (so year 1). This was in London in the 70s

My dc used to walk home from school from around year 4/5. But we live in a small Yorkshire village which is quiet and safe.

Must be area dependent. This is not the norm where I live, and never has been.
Year 7 is when most children start making their own way to and from school.

Can we work from the other end? I was at primary school in the late 60s and we walkked alone from the age of 6 (a mile, crossing the road outside the school with a lollipop man). It was definitely the norm then.

Anyone with experience in the 2970s?

I think it does vary to some extent by area and location.

I was occasionally collected from school but I never HAD to be collected.

My first primary school I went by school bus. This was early 1970s and my mum did usually collect me from the bus stop. We also sat 3 to a seat because health and safety wasn't a big thing

Then we moved, we were on a new build estate and as part of the build the footpaths were re routed through the estate but also to the school back gate.

So there were loads of kids walking to and from school by a tarmacked foot path directly to the gate, some parents did walk possibly younger children but I think it was as safe as anywhere could be.

The third school I went to I was dropped off by car and often collected but I didn't know if I was being collected until I got out of school, we moved to that school when I was in year 5 in 1976.

But my parents had this weird idea that I had to walk the way my dad would drive so if he was picking me up but was late he'd see me. Which meant I was literally walking on my own and was about 2 miles further than the short cut the rest of my class took.

I walked to and from school on my own from age 5. This was in 1958. Society has changed.

I don't agree with schools being rigid on this. Different kids have very different routes home as well as varying levels of maturity and common sense. Once at junior school it should be primarily a parental decision.

DD2 took herself to and from school from y5.

I do remember once getting a call from school to ask where she was. The horror in the bursar's voice when I said she should be there. Bursar literally dropped the phone and ran to DD's to check. Fortunately it was just a mistake in ticking names in the register.

I walked home alone from age 9 in the mid-80s.

Still remember seeing a younger boy who had been hit by a car crossing the main road between school and my house. There were adults around him, he was lying on the pavement wrapped in a blanket, and they were waiting for an ambulance.

Its pretty normal for kids to walk home alone here. We have ti come into the playground for P1 and P2 but for the rest of them its just a free for all - some get picked up right outside, some further away and some just going it alone.
Its an inner city area but quite old fashioned and pretty 'eyes on' with the kids.

Its not walking home though us it? They are checking the child is going home to an adult.

I left Primary school in 97. Definitely yr5&6 only, most collected by parents though.
I was amazed by cousins school in Scotland was just let loose from P3.

Of my DDs 4 schools...

1. Yr3
2. 10yo
3. Yr5 4)Yr5

I’ve taught in lots of very different primary schools and it varies depending on the area, how close the kids are to the school and the parents.

In my experience all schools I’ve worked in have let yr5 and 6 aged walk home alone if parents are happy. Often we have younger pupils collected by older siblings too.

I live in Switzerland (in the centre of a city) it is normal to see 5 and 6 year olds walking to school.

It is considered bad for the child to not give them independence.

In the 60s, my mother collected me from infants, I walked home on my own from juniors, then 2 buses to and from secondary.
Not much parental involvement at all really.

In y5 my daughters came to infants to meet me. Y6 they walked home and we lived on the same street as the school. That was more than 10 years ago.

The primary school kicked off in 2015 when Dd (yr4) wanted to take the bus to school as she had been doing with her big brother the previous term.

Safeguarding is more a thing now, hence the younger ones are collected by parents from the classroom door.

When you look back at the 70s some parenting decisions are quite shocking eg how many children can you fit in the backseat or even boot of the car, children being left in the car with a bag of crisps whilst their parents drank in the pub.

There is much more traffic nowadays. Many people didn’t have a car, nowadays many families have 2 cars. But even though there were fewer cars more people were killed/injured by cars. I was at Junior School in the 70s, during that time 3 pupils in my year group were knocked down by cars, 2 sustained broken bones but recovered, one died.

There were regular adverts about road safety, we even had the Green Cross Code man (Darth Vader) visit our school.

The police came to DS’s school to give safety advice and they gave us a leaflet that stated children 8 and under don’t have the capacity to judge car speed when crossing the road.

Children walk to/from school alone from year 4-5 year. It's very normal.

small town in Scotland here and children don’t have to be dropped off/collected from p3 (age7 though most are) and vast majority are walking alone by p5 (age 9).