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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

335 replies

RedHelenB · 02/04/2022 04:03

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.

OP posts:
scrivette · 02/04/2022 06:41

My DC has walked home from school
since Year 5 but we live 5 minutes away from school. There is only main road to cross and he crosses with the Crossing Lady.

Most of the Year 6 children seem to walk all or some of the way home now, the parents are getting them ready for starting Secondary in September.

Lunalicious · 02/04/2022 06:43

Year 5 and 6 at our school are allowed to walk home alone.

TheCurrywurstPrion · 02/04/2022 06:47

I live in Norway.

It was 11 years ago now, but my son started school and for the first week, parents came to drop them off and pick them up from the school bus.

After that, I was the only parent. My son was six. Different worlds!

winnieanddaisy · 02/04/2022 06:53

I collect my DGD from year 5 on the days her mother can't and will continue to do so in year six. We do this because no one else lives near her and she would be walking a very lonely route on her own .
When mine were at school in the 70s and 80s they could walk to school and back from year 3 as we lived on a small new town estate and all their cousins and friends went to the same school.
When I was at school in the 50s and 60s I could walk to/ from school in the infants because all my friends walked with me and there was hardly any traffic and not much on the news about bad men . Bad men did exist but I didn't find that out until I was nearly 7 .

Neongoddess · 02/04/2022 06:53

I am 40. It was year 6 at my primary school too.

Its not a recent thing. Varies school to school.

Dailywalk · 02/04/2022 06:55

Most children at my kids school seem to be able to walk home alone at some point in y6 - especially the last term. They enjoy walking home with each other going in similar direction. What I’ve noticed though is that I live near a secondary school and so many kids going there get dropped off by parents in the car. Why is that?? Even by neighbour drives her kids! It isn’t even half a mile to the school gate and it’s (apart from the school run) quiet residential streets away from main roads!!

DoobryWhatsit · 02/04/2022 06:56

Our primary school lets year 5 and 6 walk home alone. And they let even reception kids be picked up by secondary aged siblings, which I'm not sure I agree with.

Ethelswith · 02/04/2022 06:59

It's within my lifetime, as we all walked home from Juniors (so that's year 3 onwards age 7+)

It probably depends on where you live - I was brought up in a largish market town.

Since then, traffic has increased enormously everywhere. My DC were in a city and started home alone in year 5/6 (10+)

autienotnaughty · 02/04/2022 06:59

When I went to school we had primary. Middle and seniors. We went to middle school at 9 but I started walking to school alone in year 4. Was the late 80's tho.

camelfinger · 02/04/2022 07:03

I think I was 8 when I used to walk alone to and from school in the late 80s, small town. I also had my younger sibling with me. There was generally a group of us walking together as we’d collect friends along the way. Very few were driven to school so there weren’t many cars about. I don’t remember (but could be wrong) the school getting involved at all, you just either got picked up at the gates or walked home yourselves.

ManyATime · 02/04/2022 07:03

@Scarby9

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?

In the 1970s mothers usually waited off the premises after the first few weeks. Some infants and pretty much all juniors were unaccompanied. I’m pretty sure there were no school rules about it.
jeremyjamjam · 02/04/2022 07:06

I'm in London and at my DC's school they are allowed to walk home from year 5. I'm only about 200m from the school so I'm comfortable with that. Some of their friends walk quite a bit further with a few busy roads to cross. Personally my DC wouldn't have been ready to do that at the start of year 5 so I would have dropped them off / collected for a bit longer, but the decision to do that would have been mine.

Original poster
RedHelenB · 02/04/2022 07:06

@Ducksurprise

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.
Are you in England? Does their class teacher come out the door with them at honetime?
OP posts:
ballroompink · 02/04/2022 07:07

Year 5 and 6 can make their own way to and from school at DCs school. DC1 is in Year 5 and cycles, mostly. It's a mile and a half away along a busy main road but he's been walking/scooting the route from the age of 5 so we trust that he knows it well and is sensible.

Can't remember what the rule was at my primary school but I remember walking alone in Year 6. My sister was 4 years below me so my mum would always be picking her up anyway.

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 02/04/2022 07:08

I think my mum met me at the gate the very first day, then for a while at the library next door. Then I was allowed to walk to the traffic lights (halfway) and she met me there for the rest of y3 and 4. That was in 88.

venusmay · 02/04/2022 07:18

I think I was about 7 when I started walking home from school and I was an 80s child. We lived quite close to school and it was never a thought not to walk home. We also walked to shops alone and friends houses. Different world!

BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou · 02/04/2022 07:18

Where I currently work we only allow years 5 & 6 to leave school on their own and they aren’t allowed to be responsible for younger siblings. Where I used to work they would have been allowed to collect younger siblings.

LEGALLY we have to release the child if a parent instructs us to do so BUT none have tried and we would raise it with SS as a possible issue.

When I was at primary hardly anybody had parents pick them up. I definitely walked home alone from the equivalent of year 3 onwards (so 6 years old).

Clymene · 02/04/2022 07:22

Years 5 and 6 are allowed to leave school alone here. They have a coloured pass to show their class teacher. By year, only kids with younger siblings are getting collected, the rest all go home on their own

PupInAPram · 02/04/2022 07:23

@Scarby9

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?

Yes, 1960s primary schooler here. I walked to and from school in London. It was over a mile across 2 busy roads on my own aged 6 onwards. I can distinctly remember a few close brushes with being run over and having the front door key on a bit of string round my neck as no one was home when I got in.
Caspianberg · 02/04/2022 07:23

I live in Central Europe.
All children start school at 6. They get taken to school day 1, then after that they walk themselves if walkable.
If driven most parents drive closer, then still let them out 5-10 mins walk away so they can walk the last bit alone or with friends

Porcupineintherough · 02/04/2022 07:24

The truth is, it's not the school's decision to make, whatever they say. If you want your child to walk home in Y4 you can write and tell them. Then their choice is either to release the child or call social services. Social services will look at the journey (how long, roads, who is waiting at the other end and decide whether they think you are reasonable).

gingerhills · 02/04/2022 07:26

At DCs school, they had to make their own way home in Yr 6. It was a rite of passage. They have enough scary stuff to contend with in the shift to secondary with making their way home being a new stress.

whiteroseredrose · 02/04/2022 07:27

@Scarby9

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 went to junior school in the early 1970s. I walked home with a group of DC from my street (and let myself in) from about 7.

There were lots of us latchkey kids with keys on shoestrings around our necks.

sashh · 02/04/2022 07:29

Just out of interest do any of you have a 'walking bus'.

For anyone who doesn't know, a member of staff or a volunteer parent walks a route to the school collecting children along the way either from home or an agreed spot and then some do the reverse at the end of the day.

Hiddenvoice · 02/04/2022 07:29

I think it varies on school. Schools here ask for y1,2 and 3 to be collected by adults.
Sue to Covid only those parents are allowed in the school grounds anyway.
The other year groups are just dismissed and teachers watch them safely leave school grounds to which they are either meet a parent or walk home.