Walking to school alone

102 replies

NortieTortie · 18/10/2023 08:42

Just found out that my childrens' school's rules reg. walking to school alone is only allowed from year 6 and for the summer term only. This seems too late for me. They'll be walking to school and back in secondary school and I was hoping they'd get more than a few months practice at the school run. My niece's/nephew's school is from the summer term in year 5 and I think that's far more reasonable.

We live 0.1m away from school with one back road to cross, but it does get extremely busy during pick up/drop off. I'd be happy for them to do this from age 8 tbh.

AIBU?

OP posts:

YetMoreNewBeginnings · 19/10/2023 09:32

Stroopwaffels · 19/10/2023 08:15

Interested in why in England this sort of thing is most definitely up to the school and they have all sorts of different rules about when children can walk to school, and in Scotland, it's left up to the parents to decide and schools do not issue any such proclamations.

It’s not up to the school in England, but I think a large part of the reason many schools get away with implying it is is because many more children in England don’t go to their closest school.

Much more common in Scotland for all the children who live next to each other to be heading for the same school. Not always the case in England. Even though I live somewhere rural, so not many choices of schools, one of the kids in our street doesn’t go to the school at the end of the street.

BCCoach · 19/10/2023 10:14

CinnamonJellyBeans · 18/10/2023 20:34

@BCCoach How is walking home independent?

There's a million other ways to make your child independent: cook, clean, laundry, earn money, choose your own clothes, buy your own gifts, write to your grandparents, research secondary schools, careers, do a menu plan

Why are we so keen to make our kids independent in a way that they cannot avoid or mitigate the harm that could come to a small child alone on the streets.

Is the lure of daytime TV so great?

Because its completely normal for children to walk to and from school. It's the UK (or at least some parts of it) which is the outlier here. It was a solid hour and a half out of my working day taking DS to and from school when he was little, it was a blessed relief when he was old enough to cycle it on his own.

I've no idea what daytime television has to do with it.

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