11 year olds travelling to school - London

[TeddyIEI]

Hoping some London parents can put my mind to rest or something.
My brother his wife snd 3 children live in south west London. My eldest nieces (twins) turned 11 at the end of July, they are due to start senior school. I've just learnt they will be going to school in central/west London and taking the tube there alone!!
On the first day my brother is going to make sure they get off at the right stop and they have done the walk from their stop to the school before with their mum before. They have to be there for 08:10 and will leave at 16:50ish, so will almost definitely be caught in the rush.
My sons are 13 and 15, we live rurally and right now they can do whatever in our village, walk to the bus stop for school (school provided bus), my 15 year old has been allowed into the nearest town to go for food with friends and I wouldn't mind dropping to the cinema/picking them up or similar. But the thought of them going into central London alone, at peak times at 11 makes me feel a little ill. They will be on the tube for nearly 30 min (no changes) and a 5 or so minute walk either end.

Is this normal? Do lots of kids in London do this? AIBU to think this can't possibly be safe ?

Yes my just turned 11yr old son, and 11.5yr old DD went on the bus to and from school once in secondary and stayed home alone a couple of hours. Perfectly normal

It is completely and totally normal OP, good for them. They will be travelling amongst MANY, many other kids also taking the same route at the same time, particularly as they get closer to the school. It's good to see them enjoying free travel and learning the usefulness of public transport which we all need to get on board with in the future. Stations are ALL staffed, well lit busy places with emergency call buttons on all platforms. If there are delays or difficulties they will be travelling with hundreds, no - thousands of other passengers who need a solution too so plenty of people to follow and help.
I used the tube myself to from the age of 6 (yes, I know, but this was in the 70's)... by 12 we were running from carriage to carriage through the little doors as they sped along... Ahhhh, happy days.... But (she added hurriedly) NOT something you need to worry about as so many trains are just one long tube these days.. and too crowded to run anywhere anyway.

What exactly is scary about the tube?! Agree it can be busy and not much fun, I wouldn't choose it but it's hardly scary. Delays etc easily sorted with phone.

It's quite normal for London kids who have grown up here! Mine was taking the national rail + changing at Clapham Junction to get to school when she was 11. Then we moved closer and she still has to take the tube + bus to school. She grown up to be enormously independent. At 15-16 she travels all across London on her own with friends/alone. It's fairly easy and safe if you keep your wits about you (which London kids learn fairly young). I think your kids have a very sheltered life and that makes you think this is risky but in context of London kids it's really not.

Why are so many people saying it's none of the OP's business? Surely it's certainly your business to raise any genuine concerns you have about your nieces and nephews? I certainly would, and I'd expect my brothers to do the same.

If she raises it with her brother, he might feel free to tell her she's being overprotective of her sons and preventing them from developing their independence.

@HonoriaLucastaDelagardie "If she raises it with her brother, he might feel free to tell her she's being overprotective of her sons"

Possibly. But also to reassure her that her nieces will be OK.

Why are so many people saying it's none of the OP's business? Surely it's certainly your business to raise any genuine concerns you have about your nieces and nephews? I certainly would, and I'd expect my brothers to do the same.

Because her nieces have two capable parents who have made a decision about their children just like the OP has made decisions about her own. Personally I think her nieces are having a more independent childhood than the OPs kids

If the OP had just said what is the journey like and when 99.9% of posters said it’s fine, she went oh great then left it there fair enough (may have still been some eye rolls). But this talk of “please settle me” is ridiculous. If my sister started to question my parenting and look for reassurance she would be told to wind her neck in.

But looks like the OP has flounced so maybe she has had the talk with her brother and he has said the same as nearly everyone on the thread

It's absolutely normal. In fact their journey sounds very easy. Many DCs use at least a bus and a train, and cope with changes too.
They all have phones and use Google maps to deal with delays/cancellations/strikes/bad weather. If they've grown up in London they will be used to the system.

Some boarding school pupils fly halfway across the globe to get to school. Chill out.

I've seen kids behave worse on a school bus than I have on a tube.

Well for me the worry is the the agers inside the school and what some of them do to other children outside the school and en route. The muggings, bullying and stabbing. I think OP's nieces will be ok as it's an independent school.

mine have been travelling over an hour alone to school every day since age 11, they’ve been absolutely fine.

Indeed.

Not only that, but children have been travelling to school and back by tube for decades. WITHOUT MOBILE PHONES!!

You sound a bit silly really. It’s not your business anyway.

We're not in London, but my DD does this and it's wonderful watching them discover that they can travel about independently under their own steam. So much nicer than kids having to depend on parents to wheel them about everywhere! You've nothing to worry about, honestly.

You find it scary because you don't live in London. These kids and their parents do. It's TOTALLY normal at that age to commute to school. Would you expect them to have a private school bus or something? It's LONDON with one of the best travel networks in the world. And kids have phones if they really do get stuck.

It's not at all silly, considering my experiences as a child and those of my siblings and friends.

It's natural to worry.

I'd worry in other places too, though, not just London.

Not that it's likely to be unsafe, just that it can be and it's natural to want to know any risks and check for them.

Why are so many people saying it's none of the OP's business? Surely it's certainly your business to raise any genuine concerns you have about your nieces and nephews? I certainly would, and I'd expect my brothers to do the same.

This is a couple who have chosen a private school for their children, OP hasn't mentioned any concerns about their parenting, why should she been questioning how they get to school?

To be honest I think taking the tube to school is rather more predictable than DS’s rural bus to school where there is only one bus an hour and it gets regularly cancelled. He mostly cycles to school (on bridleways rather than on the road) but for the children who are reliant on it, its a nightmare - children frequently miss the first hour of school due to the bus simply not turning up. Luckily the school are very understanding. The bus company just say ‘driver shortage, soz’. £300 a term for a pupil pass for shit service.

Are you, personally, scared of the tube? Or of London?

I don’t think the OP is scared I think she is point scoring. I am so tired of people pearl clutching about London and it’s “dangers” as if these were children in a war ravaged city.

The idea that you need people to “settle” you about something that doesn’t even directly concern you is also ridiculous and utterly self indulgent. They’re not your children and it’s none of your business.

I personally would find the prospect of my kids getting buses through a rural area at night far more frightening than a busy tube route where there are masses of bystanders. But I don’t start threads designed to insinuate that subjecting your children to this is bad parenting because I realise people have different needs and circumstances.

This whole thread is another stealth London basher.

I have lived in zone 1 my entire life. I never knew anyone that got the tube to school when I was at school. I have 2 dc and again, have not known either of their friends to get a tube to school. They usually walk or get a bus. Tube is usually for longer journeys and most schools have a small catchment area.

But, the sort of route you’re talking about is safe enough. My biggest fear is other teenagers, which there won’t be lots of on the tube in rush hour anyway.

It's completely normal. I grew up in London and my school in Acton was only a bus ride away, but lots of my peers had tube journeys with changes or multiple bus journeys. One even came all the way from E17 after she moved.

I live on the outskirts now and girls that attend tiffin spend about 40 mins travelling via train and bus, probably other methods too!

That could happen to OP's kids though too. That kind of thing doesn't just happen in London only.

On my rural village bus we used to smoke, get chatted up by the bus drivers and text selfies of our tits to boys. Often the bus wouldn’t come, or it would break down in the middle of nowhere. I used to miss my stop in the dark in y7 and then walk a mile down an unlit country road with no pavement and cars doing 50.
The tube is busy and staffed, they come every few minutes, and there are multiple other well-lit, safe, alternative routes. These journeys are made by thousands of london teenagers every day.

My dc had to travel through central Glasgow to get to school. It's not London, but from age 13 they were getting 2 buses from home to school and home in the rush hour. Primary school pupils got a bus but secondary were handed a bus pass and had to get on with it. There was never a problem!