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.

Given that the roads are statistically safer now,
Safer because drink driving is illegal.
Safer because of seatbelts, car seats, airbags, car design safety.
Safer also because little kids are taken to and from school so that they are less likely to dart in front of a car.

My school doesn’t allow it until year 6 which seems to be one Of the later ones as most I’ve seen say year 5, it’s not that new though my brother who is 22 I remember he wasn’t allowed out of school until year 6 as my mum use to make me “collect” him sometimes and then as soon as we left the school I was allowed to let him go home on his own it’s just the teachers wouldn’t let him go without an adult.

I was year 5/6 2002-2004 and we weren't allowed to walk home alone until year 5 then.

Also I should add our school say a year 6 can only walk home alone if the parent will be home to meet them, of course they won't know if they are not but they did specify a parent must be at home.

@Catlitterqueen

I was at primary school in the 1970’s and walked on my own from the age of about 5. There were no busy roads to cross on our estate. Nobody batted an eyelid. I also remember (though I could be wrong!) school finishing at 4:30 and 4:00 in the winter when it was dark. Have I made this up?

I don't know how old you are but it may have been this .... From 1968 -1971 they didn't put the clocks back in Winter. It was a trial to put us in line with some European countries I think? I remember we were given reflective armbands to wear to walk home in the dark.

Started school in 1978. My recollection was that by end of infants (age around 7) going home alone was the norm. That's despite my DPs generally seeing danger round every corner. We lived around 500m from the school, but because of the roads layout (new town) even the kids that lived further didn't have to cross any main roads.
Mind you, when I was about 9 I horrified one teacher when she was musing about fancying some biscuits, I seriously suggested I could go home at lunchtime to fetch some for her!

@MRex

Given that the roads are statistically safer now, Safer because drink driving is illegal. Safer because of seatbelts, car seats, airbags, car design safety. Safer also because little kids are taken to and from school so that they are less likely to dart in front of a car.

Yes, I know.

I'm not sure what your point is?

I think little children should be taken to school; I also think older kids (years 5 and 6 at least) should be learning independence and road safety. They should be allowed to learn.

My children have been cycling to and from school (2.5 km) on their own since they were 8. But we live in a country which is very hot on cycling and there are very safe bike paths. I wouldn't let them do it if I didn't think the route was safe and/or they were not sensible enough.

year 6 can only walk home alone if the parent will be home to meet them, of course they won't know if they are not but they did specify a parent must be at home.

Wonder what they would have made of my situation. DM didn't work at all so as to "be there for the children ^. Yet younger DB and I would sometimes get home to find she'd gone to the shops or was still at her allotment. We weren't allowed keys as "I'm not having latchkey kids" - so we had to wait in the garden

It did used to be our culture too though.
I don't think the change in culture is a good change - to make small children less independent. Cosseting isn't good for children and doesn't help them grow up to be strong, resilient young adults.
We were all very aware of the Green Cross Code (must be said in a robotic voice).

I generally walk to school to pick them up, but there's been a few times this year that I've been unavaliable so DH has WFH and my y4 and y6 have walked all 300m and crossed one suburban estate "main" road together and let themselves in to a house with a parent.

Most y6s are now walking themselves or walking at their own pace while parents collect younger siblings. Some start from y5.

In 5 months DS1 will be a mile's walk from the bus stop and 3 miles bus from school. Depending on how his confidence is (he has ASD and it's confidence rather than ability) he may need me to do that walk with him and that might mean DS2 having to walk himself to/ from school in y5 as his journey is safer than DS1's. I'm happy with his road sense and we regularly discuss the safe crossing points/ views. I also let him make the judgement on crossing and let him do supervised solo crossings.

In the 80s/ 90s, I lived out of catchment so was a teenager before being allowed to walk/ bus. DM was overprotective and only gave up on driving me to school when forced by a broken bone. I'd have happily have done it years earlier.

My infant school had parents come to the playground. Moving school at 7, (late 80s) the next school had children come up the drive to be collected at the road at infants and juniors.

I remember in y5 (early 90s) one girl had a key on a string like a necklace. A lot of the mums were SAHMs or worked rather part-time and were able to pick up. There was no childcare provision based at school, some children went to childminders.

What I'm finding tricky is the culture (or lack of) in letting children have those early tastes of independence. It's a quiet, "safe" neighbourhood and juniors years did used to play out more 10-15 years ago. A lot of children simply aren't avaliable either in childcare or formal activities. Mine are small and young looking and would look conspicuous being allowed to play out even though there are safe places on our doorstep.

Years 5 and 6 walk to and from school where I live.

Year 5 onwards with written permission here.

when Madeleine McCann broke -- yes, really, that was the moment. That's when it changed at DC school for yr3s & yr4s. Suddenly they couldn't be released into playground any more without an adult to collect them. My youngest is now yr9 so I am out of touch with primary but wouldn't surprise me if 'No parent no release' was the rule. for yr5-6 now.

High school discos, the yr7s & yr8s (age 11-13) can't leave at 8:30pm without a parent to sign them out.

I sometimes worry about what other parents must think about us.

We both WFH so having DD walk home (Y4) is great, she loves the independence. She plays in the park after school some days and knows to be back by 4pm.

She seems to be the only one, or one of very few, in her year that walks home by herself.

We introduced it by following her for a few days to check she was being safe.

I had this row with my DCs school more than 10 years ago, in yr 5 they weren't happy with him walking back alone or his brother in yr 8 collecting him. In yr 6 they agreed reluctantly it was ok but insisted I give him a mobile phone, said they didn't consider it the norm at their school and that they considered it a safeguarding concern so were contemplating reporting me to social services.

Same school who also threatened to report me when they couldn't contact me for 30 mins (I was in a court hearing, I'm a solicitor).

Ofsted outstanding school, sadly the teaching staff are a complete bunch of cnuts to anyone who doesn't fit their mould (families where mum doesn't work or if she does either dad or grandparents does the childcare).

When I was at school in the 70s and 80s, my friends walked home alone or with siblings from age 5!

@Doggirl

year 6 can only walk home alone if the parent will be home to meet them, of course they won't know if they are not but they did specify a parent must be at home.

Wonder what they would have made of my situation. DM didn't work at all so as to "be there for the children ^. Yet younger DB and I would sometimes get home to find she'd gone to the shops or was still at her allotment. We weren't allowed keys as "I'm not having latchkey kids" - so we had to wait in the garden

Actually we had to do the same, wasn’t allowed keys to the house so from primary age we had to wait in the garden for my mum to come home, sometimes that could be 2 hours. Like I said they have no way of knowing either way and I suspect most parents aren’t waiting at home.

DDs primary allow the Year 4s and 5s to walk home in the summer term, the Year 6s are allowed.

Unless there's SN then it has to be discussed with the school.

But now we live in Germany and they allow children to walk to/from school from first class, so age 6. It's different though because it's a cultural norm, so they are in big groups, everyone goes to their local primary school, you need a good reason to choose a different one, all school bags and most coats for this age have reflector panels on them, and there are signs everywhere in September/January reminding drivers that children may be around.

The difference is that in the UK we prioritise car drivers not children. We would rather make excuses for poor driving and parking that makes it unsafe for children to walk, than cause minor inconvenience to parents who want to drive . Let's admit it is mostly school run parents who make the roads dangerous around schools.
The car is king!

Other countries have much stricter rules on speeding, parking, more pedestrian crossings, better road design, cycle lanes.

What I'm finding tricky is the culture (or lack of) in letting children have those early tastes of independence

Yes. The lack of independence is a big contributor to the poor mental health of our children and young people. When we admit that the real danger is cars and not kidnapping, we will be able to address the problem

I don't know, Germans really love their cars. But it is extremely unusual for parents to drive their children to school. It does happen but in far fewer numbers so you don't get the same congestion and parking problems near schools.

I was at PS from 1972 to 1980 and even though we lived in a low crime area children were accompanied until what is now year 5/6.

I work in a PS now and parents of KS2 children often insist they can walk home alone. Naturally that brings other associated problems such as expensive mobile phones that need to be kept safe and replaced if damaged etc.

As I understand it there is no law on minimum age, though the NSPCC recommends 12 which DS would've breached.

The issue only seems to be discussed as a problem at dismissal; it doesn't seem to be an issue regarding kids coming into school.

Let's admit it is mostly school run parents who make the roads dangerous around schools.

It is. Even for schools like my local ones, where catchment areas are mostly small and there are car parks available for parents to use for free about 5 minutes walk away from most of them, many parents are set fast in the mindset that any walking at all is the exception not the rule and so they absolutely must be allowed to park as close to the school as their car can physically get. So much dangerous driving, dangerous parking, trying to nip in quickly round the lollipop lady to make it to next gap in traffic before someone else swerves in, etc.

@BertieBotts

I don't know, Germans really love their cars. But it is extremely unusual for parents to drive their children to school. It does happen but in far fewer numbers so you don't get the same congestion and parking problems near schools.

We were in the Netherlands when DCs were at primary. Definitely from Y3 second term DCs were expected to get themselves to/from school almost always by bike though sometimes by roller skates.

There was always congestion around the school but that was because of all the parents for years 1-2 on push bikes stopping for a chat!

Let's admit it is mostly school run parents who make the roads dangerous around schools.

There is a busier road by our school that has a crossing guard, but it's the small road directly outside the school gate that's far more dangerous.