To think these parents are being overprotective and mistrusting

[Dancergirl]

Parking is a major issue at my dds' school and is a real bugbear of mine. One of the problems is that it is a very narrow road and you get people parking on corners, on the kerb etc causing a lot of congestion.

One of the ideas we have had (I'm a parent governor) is a walking bus from the top of the road. I think this is a great idea and parents could be on a rota to walk with the children. It would mean crossing the road outside the school but is a short walk, about 3/4 minutes.

When I have discussed this with parents I am amazed at the number of parents who insist on going with their child to the classroom door and wouldn't want anyone else doing it. Hence they wouldn't be interested in a walking bus unless they walk every day with the children.

Am I missing something here? I think it would be great to drop them and be able to drive off knowing they were being walked to school. We're all parents, it's a small friendly school, I don't see the problem. One mum said she would only do it if she knew the other parent very well. And another said she felt it was her 'job' to walk them down

Your thoughts?

If you need to communicate with a teacher before school you could give your child the responsibility of handing over a note. How on earth did anyone manage before we had this notion that a parent has to personally hand over a child to the teacher each morning?
The 'I'll drive them to school, park on the pavement, walk them in and speak to the teacher personally and because I can do all that it's not essential that I send them to the school within easy walking distance' school of parenting has not exactly been great for society.

Altinkum, what on earth does insurance affect that isn't money?? Insurance pays out where a person has a legal liability to pay money; it is not capable of creating a legal liability where there wasn't one before. Whether it is injury, damage to property, whatever it is, all the insurance does is provide for payment of the damages already due.

And the suggestion was that the parenting of the child concerned would be 'investigated', or that is how I took it. I can't see that there is anything wrong with the parenting of someone who allows a child to walk to school with a parent-organised walking bus; it is most likely far safer than the family walking alone (more likely to have hi-viz jackets, more likely to be visible (a mass rather than a couple of people). I do find it unnerving that someone who is presumably involved in making value judgements about other people's parenting seems to consider that such an act would be irresponsible.

But then I walked to school and back from age 6 or so, with little brother or alone. As so many people did a generation ago.

Of course YANBU OP. It's a sign of the times I'm afraid.

Times in which we have it drummed into us that there are gangs of paedophiles loitering on every street corner.

Many moons ago when I was a little girl my mother stopped seeing me into school when I was 7. I used to walk from that age on (and quite a distance too) with friends and it never did me or any of them any harm.

It's small wonder that most of these kids turn out to be ill equipped to deal with life later on.

Just13 - our local school is over a mile away - and even if we did walk it, I'd then be late for work or DH would. A walking bus - if my shcool is anything to go by - would not negate this problem. Therefore, for practality we chose a school that was on the route that we already pass every morning and night on the journey to work.

Neither DH or myself park on the pavement. We don't double park, don't park on double yellows, don't block people in....

YANBU. Sounds a fantastic idea. My DS is 6 and he would love that little bit of extra supervised independence. I must be an embarassing parent though because when we get to about 50m from the school gate he says "You can leave me here Mum, just kiss me now, I'll be fine, honestly". I look forward to the day when I can fully live up to that

Also - I went to school in the 70s, was a large first school (so reception to Y4) which was about half a mile from home, over one very busy main road plus minior roads. It was in a typical working class, not great, council estate. Noone - bar the children who lived on the rounds leading onto the playground (was a square plot with houses on all sies) walked to school - everyone we knew had parents take them. We didn;t walk to school without parents - and then only if with friends - til we went to middle school (slightly closer, no main roads) so in Y5.

Walking Bus set up

How to set up a walking bus
by the Department of Transport.

• You DO need a risk assessment done
• You WILL need to take out insurance in case of accidents, etc.
• Parents involved DO need to be CRB checked
• Volunteers should have a road safety training session, as should children
• florescent and reflective tabards SHOULD be used by all involved

Step by step guide

" Everybody needs insurance" yeah whatever.

For some things (your car, for example) you need insurance. Where businesses are providing services, there are often requirements to hold insurance - a business can have no assets at all so there is nobody to claim against if something goes wrong.

Once you start saying a walking bus needs it - do you insist your friends have occupier's liability insurance before you go round for tea? what if you cut your finger on their front door? what if you fall down their steps? do you require insurance to cover your mother looking after your kids for half an hour? If your friend walked your kids to school when you were sick, would you insist she had insurance (oh, and a CRB and any other available checks....)

In a particular situation, you weigh up the risks, what insurance is available, what it would cost, etc. And sometimes, you just have to get on with it.

And I do feel perfectly entitled to be concerned about the apparent judgements of someone who is in a position of judging the parenting of others; sorry you feel the need to resort to the sort of language you are using.

desertgirl - the department of transport says that you DO need insurance

Altinkum Thu 17-Jun-10 16:44:07

"Ive got a friend here and Ive showed her this thread, her child is in Y4 and she would not do it either.

As at the end of the day, it is us, who are responsible for our children until they get into the school premises.

I walk to school anyway, as currently cannot drive due to medical reasons, but I understand why parents dont feel able to leave there child to a stranger, as ultimately that is what the walker is."

So how do these people manage playdates and birthday parties? Or are their 9yos not allowed to go to birthday parties unless their parents have known the other families for years? That must make them stand out?

Hulababy, I'm sure they do. If I were talking to someone organising a walking bus, I would suggest they got insurance too, especially in the current climate of people suing because someone bumped their toe.

But I wouldn't necessarily require insurance of a walking bus for my child, if my own assessment of the risk was adequate - the insurance is to protect the organisers, not the children; and if it were your friends taking your child to school, you wouldn't expect them to be insured.

It does feel a bit odd reading this thread...Takes all sorts, doesn't it.

I'm sure Altinkum doesn't need me to defend her but parents who walk their own children to school, rather than park cars inappropriately around school, are hardly the main problem here.

A bit of Googling shows that walking bus schemes do tend to consider insurance, but are frequently covered if the PTA has taken out insurance anyway, or else by the LEA insurance. Probably one or two phone calls would sort that one out.

Of course not, I would never dream of having friens needing to eb insured! lol at the idea.

But TBH when I read on here that someone thought school walking buses did not require insurance I was very suprised. I could not imagine such a scheme not being required to have appropriate insurance. hence googling - and realising that my instincts were correct - insurance is necessary, as is a proper risk assessment and other measures.

Altinkum, really; do you have insurance for everything you do?

It is a way (one way) of mitigating risk. The cost of the premium, overall, is going to be more than the likelihood of the risk multiplied by the likely cost, because that is how insurers make their money.

However, if the potential cost is enormous, even if the risk is relatively small (eg bad car accident) you are better off taking out the insurance. If the cost is generally not so high and the risk is higher (eg dental insurance) it is going to be more of a toss up.

So no, you don't "need" insurance.

Formal requirements for formal situations will always be on the cautious side; they have to.

If you are taking your own decisions, though, insurance is not necessarily relevant - it really doesn't, as you have repeatedly suggested, make anyone any more responsible than they already are. If there is a question of my child getting injured, I don't want to know that insurance is there, I want to know that all reasonable relevant steps are being taken to prevent that injury.

I just find it bizarre that parents of Yr 4 children would not let them walk to school with the parents of another child who is also walking with them (and surrounded by other children and parents, so hardly locked up in a dark closet somewhere). I repeat, how do these children manage to have a social life?

Insurance doesn't stop bad things happening, you know.

I would be more than happy for my year 1 (6 year old) child to participate in such a scheme.

I would not worry about stranger danger, because to me this is a very different scenario. I do not think that there are paedophiles on every corner, but do think that children should protect themselves against the risk by never going off with anyone, unless authorised by their parents (I do not think children are able to make sensible judgements about this until they are much older), but given that the decision for my child to go off with the walking bus would have come from me, then I think it would be fine.

I would not worry about my DD running off and having an accident, because I know she is mature and sensible. If I didn't trust this, then it might be a different story.

The only thing that would prevent me using the scheme would be the practicalities - for example, if it is a day when DD had to go to an after school club in the big town, she probably wouldn't have time to walk home first and so on...

smallorange - of course it doesn't. Haven't checked but has anyone on the thread suggested that it does? However it is definitely GOOD PRACTISE and also, it would seem, NECESSARY that the walking bus is covered by insurance.