How old to do this walk alone?

[KiraKiraHikaru]

DC has just turned 8 and goes to a school that you can see from our house, about a 30 second walk. It’s literally down about 100 steps then across a small lane that does get quite busy with cars in the morning. ATM I am walking her to and from school just because of the lane but have noticed a few of her friends on our road are now walking alone to and from school.

What would your position be on this? Am I being over protective or do you think I should allow her a bit of freedom? I just worry about them crossing through parked cars but the cars do drive very slowly as there are children everywhere and you can drive faster than about 5mph anyway.

I would suggest she walks with other friends from down the road at first. They can call for her. As she gets more savvy, she could do the walk independently - at least when it's light.

I let DD do it Summer term Yr4 (similar distance, big road to cross but with lollipop lady)

Her year haven't had the 'home alone' permission yet.

Schools often have a rule for this. Here it is y5 with parents permission.

What’s she like at crossing roads? I still feel eight is very young. I remember walking to school on my own at nine and seeing a classmate get run over. I think my children’s school encouraged the children to walk on their own from year 6.

When you walk with her, can she 100% reliably tell you when/where it is safe to cross / or be over-cautious?

If not then she needs to be able to do that first.

Same. Year 5 for us

Tbh I’ve never really noticed what she would be like on the road as I’ve always just held her hand and crossed her.

I would actually suggest the opposite, that she only goes alone!

IME kids tend to behave more sensibly with respect to road-crossing when they are alone than when they are with friends. When they are with other kids, it is too easy to revert to passive mode (the way they are used to behaving when crossing with an adult) and just follow along with everyone else without checking for themselves that it's safe to cross. I often see groups of kids surging blindly into the road when they shouldn't. None of them check that it's safe, because they all unconsciously think someone else has looked. They've spent their whole childhood following other people across the road, so that behaviour is ingrained. Rarely do I see a solitary child make this mistake. When they have to cross a road alone, they know it is up to them to judge when and where to cross, and they pay full attention.

Also for some kids, there will also be an element of peer pressure in crossing the road at unsafe moments so as to look cool and not too timid in front of their friends. I always slow right down when approaching a group of kids because some of them are likely to be pushing and laughing and running across in front of the cars. This might not apply to your child. I expect you know her well enough to predict whether she's likely to do that.

OK, so the first step is for her to go with you, and you narrate your decision making process. How are you choosing where to cross, what are you looking for etc.
Then after a time of doing that, she takes the lead with you commenting/correcting and ensuring safety holding her hand.
Then you stand with her not holding her hand but she says crossing and you shout No if needed.
Only when you have done all that do you consider her doing it alone.

Time to practice road safety with her. From now on always have her take the lead when walking, see how she decides when to cross (is she looking both ways, what does she do if a car is slowing down but hasn't stopped yet, does she stay aware the whole walk or does she daydream. That kind of thing)

Our DS attends the village primary. About 5ish min walk. He is 9. He's just started walking to school alone.
This is something that the school have said is acceptable and was his choice to start doing.

He has a mobile phone now, which I can track via the Family Link App installed on both of our phones.

It's normal and standard in our village for the children to walk to the primary school alone in years 5 and 6.

A 30-second walk to a school you can see from your house? I'd absolutely let her do this, if she can demonstrate to you that she can cross the road safely on her own.

Does she want to walk alone? I let my DD do this in similar circumstances. She's always been independent, she walked with a neighbouring friend. DS had no interest in independence and we walked together until the end of primary.

It's a 30 second walk and you can see her all the way! And cars don't do more than 5mph?

I wouldn't even be asking the question. If she's a sensible kid and knows how to look and listen for cars traveling so slowly, she'll be fine.

I think the fact that she doesn't cross the road yet without you holding her hand would be the reason I would say not yet.

Get her to practice crossing the road, judging herself when it is safe to cross and go from there.

Maybe cross the road with her to start with and let her walk the rest of the way on her own.

Agree with saraclara

Sure IF she had some experience crossing a road without her mum holding her hand, but she doesn't. You can't go from mummy holding her hand directly to walking to school, crossing the road without a transition period.

She doesn’t want to it turns out. Her friend is walking alone in the morning and I said I will walk across the road with them and they can walk the rest of the way and I’ll watch. Hoping to gradually decrease the distance I walk with her. Will be much easier with me having to shoot off to work if I didn’t have to walk her down!