To tell you the school does not decide when your child can walk home alone

[Itisuptoyou]

I keep seeing this on threads and I don’t want to derail what the thread is about.

But the school cannot decide this. You do as parent. It may be you are broadly in agreement with the school and I am but this is your choice and not the schools.

It irrationally annoys me when people claim ‘the schools don’t allow …’ Not up to the school!

Completely agree, combined with the threat that social services will be involved if you if you let your child do anything that others don't like.

Beg to differ.....but my school won't release pupils from the classroom below a certain age group unless a parent/guardian/childcare provider is there to collect them

Might get away with mornings as they can just walk straight in but not home time

If they won’t release your child with explicit instruction from you then that is false imprisonment.

I know, I wouldn’t go down that route either! But that is what they are doing.

I think this is OP's point. The might have these rules, but they can't actually prevent a child from leaving if the parent has given permission.

I'm not exactly sure why you'd want to be that parent, but they can't.

Very occasionally rules override common sense @Bluemuf .

A friend of mine used to wait for her kids across the field as dogs weren’t allowed on the school grounds. Despite being able to SEE her the school wouldn’t release the child. She had to be that parent then.

I am not in the UK, but where I live a parent (or sibling in 5th grade or above) has to collect a 1st grader, according to national law. They are allowed to leave alone from 2nd grade (age 7). Here (unlike the UK) most children then walk or take the bus without parents. From 5th grade (age 10) they can also cycle unaccompanied (after a mandatory cycling proficiency test during school hours).

You can fight against basic safeguarding for your kids, of course, but don’t be surprised when that means the school are concerned about your ability to safe guard your kids.

I was sexually assaulted walking home from school. Targeted by someone who saw I walked alone and followed me to a place with no witnesses.

Just this week another kid was killed by a car walking home from
school.

My high school was regularly targeted by flashers but by that age we were big enough to run away and confident enough to point and laugh rather than be intimidated.

Can you tell me exactly what you have taught your less than 10yo to do if they find themselves in any of the above situations?

Do you think that under the stress of a real situation they would remember with no support?

I agree

i don’t live near enough to my kids school for them to walk but DD is in Year 5 and one of her friends literally lives round the corner. She ‘isn’t allowed’ to walk home alone and her parents have to juggle pick ups.

Im amazed at how much people allow schools to parent their children. Asking to take them out for grandparents funerals etc. I just TOLD my kids school I’d be collecting them at a certain time for their great grandads funeral and they kicked up a massive fuss about ‘cANt allow that’ and ‘unauthorised absence’. I just said I’m coming at 1pm have them ready, this is far more important than anything school has on and it’s my decision. They did - and I’m furious that control freak Headteachers think they can behave this way.

My friend chose to homeschool after COVID when she had a successful experience in lockdown and her children were much happier than they were at their school where they were bullied. The total fuss she had to go through, the ‘missing in education’ team got in touch and all sorts. She had a lot of pressure to send them back in. It’s scary and too many people are willing to hand over their liberties because heaven forbid you’re ‘that parent’.

I think all the school can do is refuse to release them unless an adult is there to collect them. Theoretically you could say to the school another school mum is picking him/her up then once the child has been released from school to said adult, the school has no say in how the child then gets home.

They can't control whether you let them walk to school alone.

All they could do is refer to ss if they were concerned but it's pretty unlikely ss will care.

If that's the rule of the school then that's the rule.
The same if the rule is your child has to be there by 8.50 am and be wearing a red sweatshirt.
Don't like the rules either don't send your child to that school or just suck it up.

At my dc primary school, only p1 need handed over to a parent, so age 4 and 5 years, all other year groups either meet their parents in the playground/gate/at home.

It’s not false imprisonment, don’t be daft.

The school are acting in loco parentis. A child can walk home against guidance of the school absolutely, however if they feel that child is at risk they can equally engage social services. If the parent is happy with their decision they can equally push that decision.

Rules are not the same as law.

@Comedycook I never said it was anything to do with "the law".

Of course she didn't have to be 'that parent'. She could have left the dog at home.

School doesn’t bother me too much, year 5/6 can walk home alone which is fine.

I do have an issue with my older DC. She goes to a club weekly and has done since she was 5, she is now 16. Last week they went bowling, she wasn’t allowed to meet me in the carpark without an adult escorting her to the car. She had flown alone but couldn’t be trusted to walk 10m across a carpark in broad daylight

Im sure social services have bigger problems than a 10yo walking home!

So hypothetically, what is a school going to do, if parent says they can walk home and no ones turned up to collect them by 4/5/6/8pm?

They'll call social services who will most likely tell them to let the child go (assuming the age is half way reasonable).

But school rules don't trump the law. Any organisation can impose any rules they want but you aren't obligated to abide by them necessarily.

It’s unlikely they’d keep a child when a parent has got in touch to say “just get them to walk home”.

From that other thread, our village junior school seems quite relaxed. They assume y5 and 6 are allowed to leave on their own (I assume unless they have concerns) unless the parent says otherwise. Y3 and 4 can be let out with written permission (might be just one day a week not every day). Many parents meet their kids along the way (there is a sort of handy waiting area a couple of mins away).

Most y3s are met in the playground but I think it's a mixed picture from yr 4.

They just need to know who they are responsible for and who they aren't.

Please tell me you don’t work in the legal world OP, false imprisonment is making me chuckle.

I guess it depends on age...a four year old in reception? Pretty sure they wouldn't release them and would contact ss. A nine year old? I doubt it...I also doubt ss would be impressed at being called to collect a 9 year old from school

If you knew the fuss and time it takes school to deal with any issues about junior children who have then decided to go to a friends house or stopped to play in the park etc you would understand why. School will be held responsible so have to make rules to protect themselves.

My high school was regularly targeted by flashers

So do you think the same rule should apply to your school as to every school that's never had a flasher reported? Or perhaps do you think the staff might be able to consider relevant circumstances around their particular school?