To think 11 is not too young to travel on a train alone?

[Tellmeifimwrong]

Please settle a debate! Happy to hear all opinions.

Is 11 years old, starting y7 in Sept, too young to take a one hour train journey, without parents but with a slightly younger child? Put on at one end by an adult and met at the other end by an adult, with a phone and data, and train staff informed? No behavioural problems or SEN.

I let mine at 11 & 9, 2.5 hours intercity. I spoke to train company who said it was fine and they let the train manager know, he identified himself to them shortly after leaving the station but they didn't need any help

I think it depends - we put DC alone at that age on a train - booked first class Euston to Midlands, got off at the first stop to be collected by Grandparents - about an hour.

But booking first class meant that they got a free drink and a sandwich, I could book a single table seat and there was a member of staff in the carriage at all times.

even taking a younger one under those circumstances I'd say it's OK - but only booking first class so there is someone in the carriage who knows they are there and when they are getting off at the first stop

That situation is very unusual in the UK. The great majority of secondary school children who use public transport need to go by themselves.

With all the mobile phone availability and CCTV now, you would think that kids that age should be more than safe.
Aged 11, I would take my DB (7) and neighbour (8) out for the day on public transport to parks, museums, stately homes Etc. - all over 10 miles away and into the centre of Manchester - during the school holiday to give my DM and neighbour’s DM a break. Many of my peers did the same (this was the ‘70’s).
We never got into any trouble; we learned huge amounts about geography, science and engineering: all the museums were free and we had so much more freedom and self-reliance than kids today.
IMO, we were far more resilient and independent at 11 back then than many 18-year-olds are today.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if an unaccompanied child travelling today would attract the kind of negative attention that would result in their parents being accused of neglect, such is the hysteria surrounding kids growing up these days… (my local shopping mall won’t even allow kids in school uniform to go shopping in their school uniforms - something I also did regularly for my DM when she wanted me to pick up stuff she wanted like some wool or thread for a project or even some groceries).

I think it's too young.

@WomblingTree86 it’s really not a big deal - the train using kids have to get on school buses at the station to get to school (not walkable from station). In order to make the school buses there are only two trains kids can take… so not really a big issue to have a few people on these - they’re travelling the same route anyway.

If it’s unusual for a school to facilitate transport arrangements for students then fair enough. But I’d have thought a lot of schools would have school buses and staff assigned to supervise children getting on/off at the beginning/end of school.

I think the biggest issue is a 2x 1hr commute to school! 😵

Please don't drive them everywhere.

Otherwise once they allow them to do so on their own they won't be confident at taking public transport and walking..

That's always been normal in London and SE for some secondary aged children.

I don't think I've heard of this happening in England, at least, outside the private sector.

Isn't the question really is 10 years old ok then?
As others have said v much depends on individual children, confidence, their relationship, type of train etc.

No. Not for my first year at the school but after that there were two others. The flights were always midday. There was a 'school train' to London escorted by staff but was always too late for my flight.

My brother was at a different boarding school & term dates were always slightly different so I don't remember ever travelling with him.
I think it was a big ask & there were times I felt unsafe but we were drilled not to speak to strangers etc then.

I travelled to Europe but there were girls who went to various parts of Africa & one in my year that went to Malaysia (on her own!).

No, I've never heard of staff being assigned to get secondary children on and off the bus or train and certainly no supervision while on the bus or train. Apart from anything else state schools don't have the money to pay people to do that. When you say your children are at a grammar do you actually mean a private school?

My kids take the train to school. The school is served by trains coming in form 2 directions. There are also kids coming on public buses from all the villages and school buses on certain routes.
I have neices and nephews who also took the train to school.
I am very familiar with a number of schools and areas due to my job, and many of then have school buses and kids taking public transport.

At primary level there is usually an adult present on official school buses, not a teacher, a TA.
There are NO teachers on any of these at secondary level. In fact the driver is the only adult on board the school buses (which is sometimes a cause for concern)
There wouldn't be any teachers on the trains because the teachers generally would be getting trains at least an hour before the kids (don't know where teachers can turn up at 8:40 and leave at 3:15?)

The school accepts NO responsibilty for any of the children travelling on public transport etc that is up to the parents. The would not supervise kids on the train even if they were on the train. And the train has kids from about 4 different schools on it too.
The older kids do tend to look out for the younger ones, because they are basically good kids. So if the train is cancelled, especially in Sept/Oct when the youngest ones are not familiar with the train, they will make sure they know when the next train is and that they are OK. But there are no brownie points at school for doing this.

I am frankly astonished that the school can afford to have teachers/TAs etc do this.

But on public transport they generally do behave themselves (actually fewer problems on public transport than on school buses, I would choose public transport at secondary over a school bus any day. Bullying is rife on buses)

They behave themselves because they are in school uniform and out in public. I can tell you that the good old British public are not slow in complaining if there is a problem on the train. The train kids get told off by school and parents told as well. The issues quickly stop.

@KatieB55 that really is a big ask - but it must have seemed perfectly normal if others were doing the same.
Did the airports treat you as an unaccompanied minor?

Was there a backup plan if the flight was cancelled or your train was delayed?

That's giving my inner mama bear panic attacks just thinking about it, especially thinking I couldn't call to check you'd made connections and the airport.
And it's not like if you'd got lost I'd be able to just in the car and fetch you.

My parents lived overseas, and like Katie, we did a lot of travel. In my case put on train in Liverpool by school, met at Euston by my uncle and checked in at Victoria to the British Airways unaccompanied minor service. They took us to Heathrow and put us on th eplane and then we were met the other end by my parents.

But over the years we heard some real horror stories about kids and planes.
The worst one was a business man who went through Cairo airport and saw two kids sitting waiting for a plane. He came back through 3 days later and they were STILL SITTING THERE. It turns out that the airline had bumped them off a flight, hadn't arranged another one and had just left them. They had no money and pre-phones so had no way of contacting their parents. He sorted them out and made sure they got onto the right plane and somehow contacted their parents for them.

@steppemum that's horrendous. You'd have thought the parents would be on the phone asked where they were.

@Reugny mate we walk 4-8k minimum daily, and half the time are taking multiple buses per day as limiting car use for daily travel.

I’m sorry but until 16 I will be driving DC to and from their destinations when meeting up with friends because I am safety conscious ie I want to know they are going where they say they are.

I guess it's child dependent

It was quite easy to trust mine and i am not scared of everything outside

@WomblingTree86 it’s not a private school, it’s just a good grammar school, all the others around have similar arrangements.

I don’t know why you’re so aghast about it.

And they don’t get paid for it (which I know as a relative works at one of the schools)… it’s kind of lumped in with their contribution to extracurricular.

Again - no big deal. A few teachers who are travelling via the same train anyway keep an eye out, and senior pupils also travelling via the same train anyway receive extra credit for having a supervisory role (when this is coupled with other activities they might get a prize at the end of the year or receive recognition for their contribution which they can write about on UCAS).

As for the buses - the school has a number of its own buses and the teachers alternate through the week to cover standing for 15-20 mins until all pupils departed.

No biggie, I’m not saying all schools will have this or that it is necessary for all. But it’s pretty standard at grammars where we are and I’m happy with the arrangement.

Don’t really mind if you haven’t heard of it, no need to keep banging on.

That situation is very unusual in the UK. The great majority of secondary school children who use public transport need to go by themselves.

Maybe they go to Hogwarts. I think they have staff on the train.

Back in the real world the vast majority of children using public transport of course do go by themselves.

@steppemum

don't know where teachers can turn up at 8:40 and leave at 3:15?

This idea that teachers are arriving into work an hour and half early is a bit far fetched - they aren’t paid enough for that. Relative of mine was generally 8.30 - 8.50 arrival!!

It is not the same teacher doing the same supervision every day, they alternate and it is only those who do not have other morning responsibilities such as assembly or year head.

As for the leaving early, again it’s not the same teacher every day, maybe once a week, a lot of them have to leave early for games or straight into other extracurricular at the end of school so the admin has to wait until home or they come back into school later.

To reiterate it isn’t paid. And the school is not accepting responsibility for the kids - just providing a bit of back up for the younger ones and ensuring that the standards of the school are kept high.

I live in a grammar school area and my children went to “good grammar” schools and if anything the situation regarding transport is the complete opposite to what you describe. As there are no catchment areas, the children come from all over the city and sometimes further afield and it would be totally impossible to supervise them on and off public transport. There would be nowhere near enough staff and there's no way the teachers would want to do that for free anyway. Why would they?

It isn't just me who's never of the level of supervision you describe. Nobody else on this thread seems to have heard of it either including some teachers. Are you children actually at secondary school yet?