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.

1960s I don't remember my mother walking us to or from school and she didn't work. We started school at 5. My older brother walked but usually with his friends.

When I was at primary school the rule was only year 6 could walk alone - to prepare for secondary. When my sister was in year 6 and I was year 3 (first year juniors back then) she would walk past me waiting for mum and tell me I was stupid and young because I wasn't allowed to walk home, then walk alone a different way to me and mum. Every day. She was such a dick.

My kids' primary sounds like yours OP. It used to be that at the end of the day they all streamed out into the playground, most were met by parents, and then out through the gate where there was a member of staff who would occasionally check in with a child who appeared to be leaving alone.

I'm not sure what age they let them walk home at that point but lots of yr 6s and some yr 5s walk home without parents at the moment so I assume it was the case then.

The big difference now is that the kids stand with their teacher in the playground and we have to go and collect them - this started for us as a covid measure to prevent mixing of year groups and spread out the parents.

My kids walk to meet me at work a short distance away from school a few days a week and this is fine (yr 6 and a very sensible yr 4 - yr 4 kid never walks alone, yr 6 one does on one day when the other has a club). I wasn't sure if they'd let my yr 4 leave without a parent, but it wasn't an issue - I just checked with the teacher that older sibling could come and collect from the teacher instead and then wrote to the office to confirm. I don't know whether they would have refused permission if I'd asked about my yr 4 leaving alone (despite the fact that he's much more aware and reliable than my older one!) As far as I know, he's the only yr 4 that doesn't leave with a parent. They only walk 5 minutes down the road on a route with minimal dangers and with lots of other kids and parents going the same way.

@RedHelenB

I was really meaning more recently as in the last 10 years or so, things seem to have got stricter regarding schools letting children go home alonr. My son went from y3., now if I said he could walk home alone they wouldn't let him go and call SS if I wouldn't collect him, is that the case?

They could do that, but in reality they’d only do that if it was a ridiculously dangerous walk home. If it’s not SS won’t be interested and the school will know that.

Schools rely on parents not realising this is a parental choice not the schools choice.

In nearly 20 years working in multiple schools only once did I see a school not accept right away that the parent could indeed decide their child was to walk from school alone.

When I was at primary school in the 80’s it raised a few eyebrows when one of my friends who had just turned seven was waking to school (possibly towards the last year of infants). However, all my friends started walking to school at 8/9. I started walking to school at 10 (in 1990) only because we loved house and our old house was 3 miles away. It was considered perfectly safe as I was sensible to take my 7 year old brother with me.

I’m a teacher, I have worked in special schools for years now where none of the children would be able to walk home but I did a teaching placement in a Southampton junior school in 2009 and all the kids in the school, so Y3 up, were allowed to walk home straight out the school gate. Very few parents did school pick up, most of the kids walked home in groups with their siblings, cousins or neighbours but without an adult.

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.
Perhaps I should add there was one fatality of a junior age child on the road coming home during my time at primary school.

It's normal for year 5 and 6 to walk here. Some younger dc do walk but it's not seen as good parenting

Another at school in the 80s - I walked home by myself from the first year juniors onwards - not sure what 'Year' that is in 'new money' but aged 7.

Ours allows some Year 6s. There is a Yr 5 who is allowed to, because she lives very close and her mother is very ill and homebound. The arrangement is that the teacher on duty calls mum to say the child is on her way and then mum calls the teacher to say she is home. I like that alot.

Dd really wants to start walking to school by herself ( from where I park not the whole 4 miles ) except literally no one does amd she's year 6.

There's probably 1 or 2 kids in her class that walk by themselves.

It means I can't let dd as she likes to walk with her friend we see on the way and as his parents are walking him in its unfair to put the responsibility of dd onto them.

Its bonkers. They will all be getting the bus to school in September. Dd will have to walk over a mile to school.

Its bizarre it really is

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

Ah I love this I often surprise myself when I have to count the decades.

We did walk to school when we were young (1960's) but so did everyone else, so there would be many children, and a few adults all heading in the same direction. Walking to school was never something we actually did alone. Today so many children are collected in cars that it would not be unusual for a child to be alone on the walk home. I think that makes a difference.

Scotland - from p4 (7/8 year olds) the school encourages parents to sign a slip saying they can walk home alone. School is in the city with 2 mile catchment.

Our local primary only allows y6 to walk home alone. Not actually sure if/ how they monitor that, or arrivals.

I used to collect my sister when she was in year 5. I think that was the earliest they allowed it.

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.

My daughter is 22 and walked home from when she was in year 3

Wheee I live in Scotland children cans, and do,walk home at any age.

Mine own children took the bus because we lived too far from school otherwise they'd have walked too.

I was walking home in yr 3 in the 1970s. Think most kids were still collected at that age but I lived very close by with no roads to cross.

My kids' primary let them walk from age 9 (i.e. part way through yr 4) in 2016.

I think sometimes it depends on the area as well , whilst the school dc go to is brilliant for them, there is an area nearby where dc would have to walk through that most of the parents and teacher wouldn't allow. It officially is allowed in ours at year 6 but in reality the school asks why. For good reason because of the area but its gentle and supportive.

If its a parent working issue and the child is responsible then I know it happens but there are maybe 10 at most that do it. (Small school you see the dc coming in and out and the geography means there are only really 2 routes ). Mostly the parents at year 5 or 6 walk them to the road outside the school and stop at the end and watch as they enter the school gate. And do the same in reverse at hometime.

Those that do walk on their own through the dodgy part , frankly it's an unwritten rule that the other walking parents keep an eye on them. Not in a judgy way (everyone knows it's bloody hard to manage working and pickups) but just a watching eye to make sure those dc are safe in the less than pleasant areas.

Whoever is nearest will either walk near them and sort of escort them from a little way away or watch them through the underpasses (that's the main bit because dealers are forever down there). It becomes a bit of a relay with one parent group watching through a subway and nodding to a one on the other side to confirm handover.

Once they get past that bit the Dc are in a town centre with cameras and lots of community security so they get on their way. Before that through the dodgy area is isolated and security can't see them. To be fair the community patrols tend to make a point of being near the entry point to the town from the school at pick up time, it's quite sweet really as it almost becomes a handover from random groups of parents who walk away when they see the community safety are close enough to keep their eyes on the walking dc.

It's not remotely unusual for a nearby parent to glare at the dealers, make sure they walk between them and the walking DC, step in when they try to speak to the children.

Before anyone asks , yes they are definitely dealers they are overt and don't hide it, yes the police know , yes there is regularly violence or inappropriate behaviour , yes we all report all the time. It doesn't change and won't due to the nature of the area so the parents just collectively make sure the dc make it safely through.

Started primary in 1973 Mum took me on the first day and Dad picked me up, after that i was on my own. The route to school was about 3/4 of a mile and i had to cross 3 roads. All of the children walked on their own.

10 years ago primary school would only release y5 or y6 without a parent, so not new. Seems sensible to me.

@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.

Yes same here...yr 5 and 6s are just let out .....mine went to school in 2000s and I remember them coming home in year 4 on there own

At the age of 9 I took my 5 year old brother across London by bus.We were a group of children seen onto the bus by a parent ,we walked the other end to school.This was very normal in the 50s.The only thing we were told not to do was accept sweets from strangers! How times have changed.My sister in law at 9 came home from school and put the coal fire on as her parents were working.

@ManyATime

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. Perhaps I should add there was one fatality of a junior age child on the road coming home during my time at primary school.

Yes sadly that’s a good point. A friend of mine died age 7 walking to school on his own. Crossing a 40 mph road on his own.

My DS16 walked home from school towards the end of year 4 (he was 8.5yrs old) after my DM grabbed him by the throat and locked him outside. He was safer at home. Other kids and mums walked in the same direction so he wasn’t in the street alone although he walked alone.