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.

No children are "collected" at the school door. Parents wait outside the gate and majority of kids walk home - even the lower stages. Scottish rural primary, small village.

We walked home from school in the 60s
The only day I was taken to school and collected was my first day age 4
After that we were on our own
Most of us were local and walked with friends
There were hardly any cars
The council estate we lived on wasn’t even on a bus route so little traffic

So my 5yo would be perfectly capable of walking our route home. There are no roads to cross and she knows exactly where she is going. However, there is a bloody massive difference between being able to walk a route home and being able to go home to a potentially empty house. And that is why I assume schools want to hand over to a named person. In practice, I’m not sure when she’ll get the chance to walk on her own as she has a younger sister who will need collecting and dropping. I’d like her to have the chance to develop that independence during year 5/6 so secondary isn’t a massive shock to the system so suspect I’ll need to engineer the opportunity for her to sometimes go back herself.

@ChangeAndHelp

We live abroad. I would never allow my child to walk to school or back in London. And yet at 6/7 years she was walking to school alone and back from school from 8 years.

The difference is that 1) this is the norm here (Germany) and often kids walk in groups 2) unless you got to a private school - you must go to the nearest primary school 3) i do find that (in general) people and drivers are more aware of kids walking to and from school at those times. And they have massive backpacks!

I also travelled alone to school in the eighties and my school was a sport one so it was on the other side of town . I guess it’s an example of changing general attitudes

It’s funny isn’t it how one country like Germany has a culture that this is norm. My god daughters grew up in Germany. Their mum would stand at the side of the dirve and watch her girls, age just 3 (twins) walk up the road to the kindergarten about 500 yards away. She said the utter fraulains would be appalled if she took them herself that short distance and that she had to let them find their feet.

I think you also have a very good point. Up until 1998, parents had no choice as to where their kids went to school mostly. By exception parents might have been able to manipulate but almost all children went to their closest school. By default that was reasonanably walkable. For kids , like me, whose nearest secondary was 4 miles away we’d get free public transport and would walk either side of that bus/train stops.

When the law changed in 1998 , 60% of children went to a school that was not their nearest one and sometimes the furthest one. LA wouldn’t pay fares as there was closer schools, so parent chose knowing full well that they either had to pay fares for the kids or take them in a car. Then add in the fact that buses were denationalised by then in 1985, it became much cheaper for parents to use a car than a bus- much cheaper to run a car in general viscoses in 1960s and 70s
So I think it’s a combination of the 1998 education act, plus the reduced cost of car travel vs public transport that has got us to point where we’re just not used to seeing kids walking to school or out and about by themselves. And we misinterpret that as being a safe way to parent .

Ironic really- kids may be safer from RTA,, but without that daily exercise to establish healthy habits, we’re storing up future high blood pressure, heart attacks and god know how Many additional premature deaths

I've seen this before on Mumsnet and it always surprises me. Kids can walk themselves home from last term of y4 here. Any kid who still had a parent collecting them by y5 would be embarrassed

oh, maybe the Scotland/England thing is in part due to how school admissions work. Almost all state primary kids here go to their local catchment primary.

We walked home sometimes in a group of friends from age 8 because the eldest had turned 10. Rapid reverse when I turned 9 because some travellers moved into the field with lots of uncontrolled dogs; the route avoiding that field was much too far and involved a dangerous road without a proper crossing. So one or another parent picked us all up again.

A girl from Brownies was run over and killed, and a boy from my friend's school too, I feel like there were a lot more accidents and I certainly wouldn't let an under 8 walk because they can't judge speed effectively. The route for DS is ok enough that he could do it easily except ironically due to parents parking by a corner to pick up their kids from one or another school. Unfortunately it's really hard to predict who is waiting, who is going to use their mirrors and who will just drive while expecting everyone to get out of their way; we have no choice but to cross along that stretch. We only narrowly avoided being run over a few weeks ago when I was with him because an idiot just started reversing round the corner while we were crossing the road, and we have seen multiple close calls for other kids. It has made him start noticing cars and comment about drivers setting off without looking, so I'm hopeful the idiots are perversely helpful.

I’m impressed some schools still have lollipop ladies, none round here due to budget cuts

At my DS school it is Y6.. which I agree with.. near a bit of a busy road with a zebra crossing and lights.. but quite often drivers do not pay attention.. I feel that yr6 is right and will stagger the walk drop off points at this time.. to build confidence in him feeling safe and me feeling that he is confident

@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?

Social services would laugh at this FFS What a load of shit! My DS's school discouraged walking alone before year 5. But they don't hand kids over to parents so it's really impossible to police anyway. I let mine walk home in year 6 - would have been happy in year 5 if our house had been closer but it was a 25 minute walk so too far at age 9.

Maybe, more children are local in Scotland. We are in a very suburban area with the school in the centre of its catchment area, most homes are within 10 minutes walk at most. Some children are driven to school (parking is a whole other issue) but loads walk, and many walk alone or with friends/siblings.

Also agree that collecting from inside school simply doesn't happen, even pre-covid. At our school parents stand outside the playground behind a low fence, at another local school which is on a busy crossroads they stand inside the playground as there isn't space on the pavement.

We also don't ever have to call the school and approve someone else collecting our child - I had other kids home to play after school dozens of times and the other parent doesn't have to call the school office to say that Sophie is going home with Katy's mum today.

At my school (I left primary in 1987) no one walked home alone. This was because there was an incident where a lad in Year 6 (top juniors in old money!) was supposed to walk himself home, didn’t and stayed instead to play on the climbing frame. Fell and landed on his head. No one was watching because as far as staff were concerned he’d gone home. He died that night. After that, no one went home until someone was there to take responsibility for them.

In my school, we are a tiny rural village school, people come in on tiny country lanes with no pavement from up to about six miles away and we don’t have anyone close enough and old enough to walk alone. Last year we did and he walked home alone. Circumstances mean that most can’t though.

Car park at pick up is great though. Mostly cars but also farm quads, tractors and horses.

@toomuchlaundry

I’m impressed some schools still have lollipop ladies, none round here due to budget cuts

It is outrageous that budget cuts cut something so essential. We had a huge community fight to retain ours before the council gave in.

She's amazing. Knows all the kids by name and can usually be found saying things like; 'Ollie- your mum had to park on South street instead as she is running late'. Not at all unusual to see cars slowing down with parents asking her to pass a message on. Love her. She is usually also laden down with gifts from parents at Christmas too. :)

@toomuchlaundry

I’m impressed some schools still have lollipop ladies, none round here due to budget cuts

We have a lollipop lady - it's one of the cleaners/janitor in a different coat!

I used to walk a mile to school across main road when I was 9 with my 7 yo brother in the late eighties and walk back. No one seems to care and neither did I. I crossed in a sensible place at 9.

@GoldenOmber

oh, maybe the Scotland/England thing is in part due to how school admissions work. Almost all state primary kids here go to their local catchment primary.

Yes that's definitely a possibility. It's definitely the default in Scotland to go to your catchment school.

@Onthegrid

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

Same for mine

Our school allows y5/6 to walk home. Only stipulation is that they walk for no longer than 30 mins home. Otherwise crack on.

Mum always walked us to school when we lived in a large town with a few busy roads to cross, but we moved rurally when I was in Y6 (11yo) so I walked my Y4 (8yo) sister to and from school at the opposite end of our village. There was one small road and one main road to cross but there was a lollipop lady for the main road. From Y5 onwards it was pretty normal for kids to walk on their own.

I'm in England. But our local primary has a tiny catchment area as it's massively oversubscribed. So I don't think anyone lives more than 1/2 mile away.

@toomuchlaundry

I’m impressed some schools still have lollipop ladies, none round here due to budget cuts

That’s one of those things that becomes a vicious circle - parents don’t let kids walk alone because of a cut in lollipop staff, then they cut more lollipop staff because they’re not needed due to less children alone, which leads to more parents feeling it unsafe… so on and so forth.

I walked home from school from about Year 4, I'd say. That said, I only lived a five/ten minute walk away and I usually walked with friends who lived on the same street. It was a very quiet area and we took a little country lane as our route home, I imagine it's very different in other places.

Yr 5/6 allowed although parent has to sign consent at beginning of years, if parents of younger kids want them to walk home they have to discuss it with the school.

There was a spate of kids walking home from school being approached by people not long ago in our area, granted it was mostly secondary school kids, but lead to a lot of info being sent round by local police and talks in secondary schools about county lines trafficking, that wasn’t a problem so much years ago when I was allowed to walk home from primary school.

DB and I walked home alone from the ages of 5 & 7 to sit in an empty house until our mum came home from work at 5.30pm. She was a single parent in the mid 70s so had no childcare options.

As part of our route (Edinburgh) we had to walk down a covered stairway where the local city centre drunks would shelter - we literally had to step over their legs. They didn't bother us.

London. Y5-6 here. Traffic and the fact drivers don't give a shit about pedestrians is the reason I wouldn't allow it earlier. My sis & I walked alone from 5&7 but we were in a quiet Yorkshire village.