The school run

[Lilysmum]

I see the Government have decided to focus on this....

Am I the only person to get infuriated that mums are constantly scapegoated as single handedly responsible for traffic conjestion?

Is there something less valid about going to school than going to a poxy office to sort paper clips into different colours and sizes ? Are the car journeys of a lardy Burton's suited 'professional' geezer who frankly could do with the exercise, somehow more righteous than kids going to school to get an education?

Blimey my daughter is not even old enough to go to school yet and I am still morally indignant about the whole thing

Oh yes lets tell them to cycle to school - as long as we don't mind a phone call from A&E one day to say 'hurry up - junior is in resus with a head injury'

Oh yes lets make them walk to school - just this week there was an attempted abduction of a teenage school girl in broad daylight just down the road from me....

What about mum's who need to go on to work afterwards - they can hardly be expected to walk junior to school, walk back and then hop in the car to go to work....not unless they boss doesn't mind them turning up until elevenses.

Rant over....

Tigermoth - my reading of those stats is that the 11 yr-olds have little road sense, because they've never been out on their own before, certainly not at busy school-run time.

My friends live in a big town in Germany, the children start school when they are 6, and start at 8 am, when it is often still dark. They ALL walk to school, (the Head practically forbade them to accompany their kids!). Yet Germany has a better road safety record than we do ... because everyone expects to see children walking to school on their own at that time of day, and behaves accordingly.

As an aside - her dd (4) was at kindergarten, and the teacher asked her why she didn't send her ds (6) to pick her up sometimes and bring her home, rather than coming herself?! Bit of a different attitude to some things!

That's a good point about that statistic, Kmg.

Another fact I have uncovered (proven 100% or not) is that before 9 years old, boys are incapable of judging distances and speed of moving objects correctly. Girls brains develop differently and they master this earlier. Road sense in boys is generally not as advanced. I don't know if this evens out by 11 years.

RE the 6 year old picking up the 4 year old: I can't say I'd let my 9 year old walk my 4 year old to school, even though he's played out by himself for years now ( so hopefully has some road sense) and is quite responsible when it comes to looking after his brother. I just know his sense of responsiblity ebbs and flows. He also hates being responsible for his little brother for more than a few minutes. He realises what a burden it is. I can't blame him for that at all. I wonder how many yong children really want to be responsible for their younger sibling's safety?

9 years seems to be a watershed age for walking minus parent. In theory, my son could walk to and from the local afterschool playclub. No adult would need to sign him in or out now. He would be allowed to walk home alone at 6.00 pm - a 25 minute walk.

Lilysmum i feel exactly the same as you and said so to my dp last night after the news.....several times My daughter will be in school next year and hopefully it will be the one round the corner which i will walk to! If i needed to drive however i would!!

i walk 3 hours every day to school and nursery i don't mind it now but when is windy or raining i`m going to hate it

It is simply not an option for my kids (9 & 11 ) to walk to school alone. My eldest goes to high school on the other side of the city, there are no direct buses to get hm there and I just don't think that I would be responsible parent if I let him cycle the 4 miles on some of the busiest roads in our city just to please Mr bloody Blair.

My other son goes to primary school which is a 20 minute walk from our front door, whilst it is perfectly feasible for him to walk distance-wise I don't feel it is appropriate to make him do the journey on foot. I have all these concerns and we live in a fairly middle-class area which isn't known for crime, so goodness knows how those families who are less fortunate feel !

Interesting points. Of course we all know mums (and others ) who are just too damned lazy to walk, but in my experience they are the minority.

One thing always forgotten in this debate is that you don't have to send your child to the nearest school, which means that if you move to a house that you have deliberately picked so that your child can walk to school, that school does not HAVE to take your child. I have a school at the bottom of my road, about 2 minutes walk. That's why we bought this house. Yet we ended up with a 22 mile journey to school every day because DS3's year group was full & they wouldn't take him. (& neither would any other school in town because we "weren't in their catchment" ? Made no sense to me either).

DS1 has a 35-45 minute walk each way to high school, which he does without complaint. There are no closer secondary schools. We are just under the 3 mile limit (& I can't see how, but that's what the LEA says) so if I want a bus for the other 2 (other side of town- grammar school) I have to pay £125 a term EACH for the privilege. DS2 has ADHD & can't actually walk anywhere alone. DS3 will supervise him if asked nicely but the poor kid is only 11, why should he have to? Consequently DH takes them by car. This term they have stopped parents parking in the school and the council has painted yellow lines on all the roads around the school. Where is the sense in that?

I take my car 17 miles in the opposite direction to work. I use the park & ride, despite it taking longer than parking in the town, so I feel I'm doing my bit. The train only goes twice an hour- I'd have to leave home 30 mins earlier for the early one or be late for work on the later one.

DH works (nights) 20 miles in the other direction. He took the job he's doing now because he could walk to work. Within a year they transferred him to another town (it was that or redundancy). He has to go by car because he wouldn't get back in time for the school run.

We certainly didn't plan for our lives to be car-centred. My ambition our whole married life has been to be able to walk places & lose the huge expense of the car(s), but it just doesn't work.

I agree wsm that it's not on for 9 year olds to walk to and from school alone. I am sure my son's school would really frown upon it and I would have to explain my reasons to the head.
I know some year 6 children walk to school alone, but this is still rare.

I imagine many urban schools would disapprove of this practice. My school is not unique. Even if I felt ok about my son walking to school alone and to encourage him walking, stopped giving the lazy little blighter a lift in my car, I would not be allowed to go ahead. Given this disapproval, driving children to school on the way to work might be the only option.

Mind you, you can compromise a bit by parking a 5 minutes walk away from the school. After trial and error this is what I do now. I do not trust myself to be as considerate and calm as I should be to other drivers and pedestrians when I am in a rush and everyone is trying to make for the same bit of parking space. For safety's sake I would rather my son is a few minutes late.

Sorry Scoobysnax, had to lol at the idea of shorter working hours - certainly not true of Switzerland, basic 43 hour week, but then not part of EU. Some get into the office at 6 am and then leave earlier than usual for UK so perhaps more flexibility would help. Kids are walking to our local school at 7-7.30 am, including in winter. They do operate a staggered day with half the class starting a couple of hours earlier than the rest then taking an earlier lunch whilst the others repeat the lesson - but can't see UK Teaching Unions going for that one ! It is normal for kids to walk to school by themselves from 4.5 and to use public transport (loads better and safer than UK here) from primary school age. We use school buses too. However despite this, the roads are still heavily congested at rush hour, am and pm.

I would walk to school but I have to get home-I work from home teaching and have to clear up the debris and make the house presentable) and I literally have five minutes at home before people arrive. I could sometimes collect the kids from school but usually one of them has some after school activity and it's hard enough now to get home, put tea on (having timed it to the second) and then collect whichever child, sort out tea and deliver them to whatever next activity. If you can walk to school, I admire you and do think it's great and I also agree with whovever said about not enough PE etc at school. They have to cram so much curriculum stuff into the day now that the arts, drama, painiting, pottery, dance, phys/ed is slowly going by the board. Kids do watch too much TV/computters these days but unless you live in a really safe area or go with them, how many people would let their kids out to the park on their own under 13/14years, and then you worry abpout bullies/drugs etc.

If the government wants to stop parents driving kids to and from school, then it should invest in school buses similar to the schemes run in other countries. And if its that worried about our childrens health, then start increasing the amount of sport etc they do at school - and no, not at the expense of the other subjects, I think the school day is ridiculously short, especially in high school. (My 14 year old is there 9 - 3.30 with about 1.5 hrs breaks)Is it France where they do 8 hours a day? Plus they do some daft curriculum stuff now - I really don't see the need for drama etc to be compulsory, I'd rather they learned English!
Rarely drive him to school, he walks and gets the bus; at primary school I used to walk with him, 20 minutes each way - gave the dog his exercise too, and yes, I did clear up after him!!
There is a school at the bottom of my road and the parents are a nightmare, I find it so annoying that I am inconvenienced going to and from my home, by people who don't live here! But to be fair, the children are not exactly helpful, they often deliberately cross in front of the car and then walk really slowly, pretending they don't know you are there, much to their friends amusement... Makes me want to run them down!! As for those off-the-road monstrosities, I don't think off-the-road was supposed to mean on the pavement! I think if you can't get your pushchair past without going on to the road, you should be allowed to force your way past, scratching all the paint and knocking the wing mirror off!!! I'm only half kidding too
Sorry, feeling very hormonal tonight!

There is a point though. I live across the road from a High School and at home time the school run mums and dads park, erratically to say the least, all over the place.

When trying to turn into my own street I have to dodge cars parked on a dangerous downhill corner, and parked in such a way it is convenient for them to make a quick getaway but sod anyone trying to get past! If I am trying to get past them with the double buggy, these are the ones who decide to park on the pavement thus blocking that part of the road too, I get shouted at for daring to scratch their precious vehicles. To which I reply they are breaking the law by being parked there and although I haven't scratched their cars if they don't shush and switch their engines off I will.

So maybe the brou-haha is caused by people unfortunate enough to live too close to a school and have to suffer the consequences.