Is 9 to young?

[FocusToday]

My husband works from home on a Monday. We live around the back of my DS primary school - I have googled it and we live 112 metres from his school.
Do you think the summer of year 4, so will be 9, is old enough for him to walk home from school on his own?
For context he won’t be crossing a road and the front door will be left open for him to get into the house. My DH has a team’s call every Monday from 3pm till 4pm but will be able to hear him come into the house.
My son goes to after school club atm but doesn’t really enjoy it.
We have not spoken to him about it yet. My husband thinks its fine. I’m not sure.
Would the school even allow this though?
Thank you!

I thijknutsvgjne but our primary school only allowed it from year 5.

Oops. I meant I think it's fine

It's absolutely fine but the school might kick up a fuss though but they don't have a legal basis for denying it so you could argue it.

But yeah it's fine, children are far more capable than Brits tend to believe. In my (non UK) town 7 year olds walk clear across town to get to school and back, crossing even main roads. 9 year olds aren't even allowed to go to after school club (except those with additional needs that make them too vulnerable) so they have to walk alone at that age.

What's your source of that information?

Here it is common for dc with relatively straightforward walks to start walking in p4 (year 3/8 years old). Some do it the year before too. I’d think nothing of a 9 year old doing that walk although it sounds like in England schools get a lot more say in what you allow for your child so will need to be checked!

Agreed.
And blanket rules don't make sense. Every child is different. Their route home and distance will be different too.

Op i think it will be fine. My 8yo comes off the bus himself, and similar distance.

My DD started walking home at 9, though it was Y5. At first we met her at the last road crossing. But that won't be an issue for you. If school will let him, he'll be fine.

Of course it’s fine. It’s utterly ridiculous to ask the question can a 9year old walk 100m alone. How far we have fallen.

So sad that a 9 year old cannot walk 100 metres?

It would depend on a few things - mostly the child, but also the area, how busy the road is, how easy it would be for DH to take action if he didn't hear him coming in by a certain cut off time etc. Do any of his friends walk the same way? Maybe not to ask their parents to drop him off as an ongoing favour, but if there are a few people it could be reassuring there are people en route he knows if there's a problem.

My children's school don't allow it until year 5 even if they lived next door so it's likely your sons school is the same

Of course, he's 9 years old. Not a baby.

Sounds fine to me - that’s the normal age for kids to walk to/from school alone around here.

I agree! He's not 4...

It's fine, but I'd speak to the Head Teacher about it as your son's teacher would probably have to ask anyway.

and you wouldn't want there to be any misunderstandings that he will be alone in the house.

My son did. I wrote to the school, explained he had been walking to school by himself for a while, our address ( very close) etc and said he wanted to walk home alone and the school were fine about it. He was the first kid to start walking home alone and got real kudos amongst his class mates. He was very proud!

I am in my early 50s and walking to school without parents at this age was normal when I was growing up. I believe it still is in many EU countries. We are way too over protective in the UK.

My children would have been fine, but their school didn’t allow it until the last term of year 5

I’d say it’s child and maturity dependent.

(and the school may have rules about which year this can be done!)

But if school limit to year 5 is there anyone who walks your way he can tag along with? I had no issue when collecting my DS (he used ASC but when I was) with his mates walking along with us and going into their own closer homes.

Also think when your child is born makes a difference. If he’s still 9 he’s older on the year?

Mh DS was August born so he was still 10 when he left primary school! Big was year 6 like everyone else.

of your DD will be 10 this year that’s a whole other level of maturity that comes with age.

Why are the schools allowed to dictate like this? Surely parents can risk assess their own kids

I really think we should be giving our children these opportunities often and at a younger age than many would want to.

Children need to learn to take responsibilities for things.

Yup, children crave independence and are so proud of themselves when they do something by themselves. I recently let my 7 year old walk to the nearest shop, about 1km away, by himself to buy sweets and he was beaming with pride.

Sounds absolutely fine to me. Actually a good thing - IMHO it's good for children to take on responsibility in amounts they can handle. To be honest, this sounds easy enough for a much younger child. I'm amazed to hear that some primary schools don't allow this. My DCs are in their early 20s and used to get the bus home on their own when they were in y4 and 6. The younger DC then did it alone from y5 onwards.

My DD the same age did exactly this from Jan to April when I had Teams training all afternoon once a week - she was fine.

Didn't even tell the school tbh - she already has permission to come out to the gate to meet me so just told her to walk down to the house instead, they have zero clue any other day who is meeting her or not

Wtf - I would be just telling them that my kids are coming home themselves and that's that. Have done so before about coming home from an after school club. It's not their decision to make once they have left the premises