Switzerland - 5/6 yos walking to school alone

[BioSuisse]

In Switzerland kids seem to either catch the bus to school or walk alone. Next school year DD (5, stb 6) will attend 4 afternoons a week. Meaning walking to school at 8.00, walking to collect her at 11.30, returning her to school at 1.30 and walking back again to pick her up at 3.15.

Most kids here seem to walk to school alone, though i know it is not a British thing to do so. I just had a conversation with her Teacher who suggested i let her walk alone as she thinks DD is mature enough to do it.

The walk is approx 8 minutes and involves crossing two busy roads on pedestrian crossings. It is just through the village though.

Not sure what to do.

Walking to/from school aside, I'm also getting used to the fact that the school has no fence or gate. Kids from 5yrs old go out to play around the school buildings and they aren't fenced in. At all. The same at forest school - a group of 2 and 3 year olds loose in the woods for 3hrs. It's amazing how they respect invisible boundaries. Do kids ever 'escape' from school or nursery like they do in England? There were a couple of stories recently of nursery kids wandering out the building and walking home.

naturalbaby I noticed this too when we visited dd's future school in Germany. Gates wide open all day and so are the entrance doors. Anyone can walk straight into all classrooms. I know children are 6/7 when they start primary (rather than 3/4 including nursery class) but still... It did concern me I must say because I am used to locked gates and entry to the building here is always via the secretary and a buzzer.

Lucky you moving to Germany Jewel - where will you be? We lived in Germany bc and talk about moving back now and then but struggle with the patchiness of Ganztagsschule and wraparound childcare. I don't think anyone pays attention as to who is dropping off at dc's school and at least one mum seems to open the car door on the main road and the just run in.

cheminotte Small town in North Rhine-Westphalia, staying with family. It's only until Christmas initially and my guess is I will be begging to come home (ie Uk) by then because I've been in the uk all my adult life.

We used to live in NRW in a town near Bonn. Was lovely and the quality of rentals so much better than here.

DS has school gates but they are rarely closed. When school ends the kids come charging out, and those staying for after school are playing outside with no teacher for a good 20 mins. The football is constantly going over the fence and being rescued from the road outside. About half the kids take a couple of trams through the city aged 8-10. They travel in a group though.

The school has an expensive restaurant on the ground floor so it's full of Swiss businessmen at lunchtime, parking and entering the restaurant so the football is bouncing off really expensive sports cars

I mentioned that it wasn't a positive thing to have an outdoor ashtray by the door (for restaurant clientelle) and everyone looked at me like

My dd's school in the Netherlands does have gates, but they are always open.

Last week my dd told me that her teacher had been really cross with one of the boys for repeatedly kicking a girl during playtime. After lunch the boy was nowhere to be seen. It turned out that he had walked home and as his parents weren't home the staff didn't get an answer when they'd phoned his home, neither on the mobiles. Next day he was back and the teacher told the class 'ok, we are not going to talk about it, we will move on'.
I suppose this happens probably at other schools as well, only you may not find out.

My two have just got home, they take themselves back and forth to school very happily - when everyone else does, it seems quite normal. You'd feel odd accompanying them tbh (in SW Germany).