What's a reasonable distance for a 5-year-old to walk to school?

[BucketFullOfDinosaurs]

DS is nowhere near school age, so this is all hypothetical (just asking out of interest really), but last night DH and I were talking about school, and when we mentioned the one we'll probably send him to I said "It's also handy enough to walk to". DH was horrified that I'd think of making DS walk there - it's less than a mile away, so I'm appalled at the thought of driving it!

When I was at school I walled a couple of miles each way, so maybe my views are coloured by that. What do you all think? Is a mile too far to expect a child to walk? DS will have just turned 5 when he starts school.

We walk a mile to school, I wouldn't want to be further away tbh as it would start to take quite a chunk out of the day, but I quite like the walk. We've been doing it since DS was just 4 and he's always been fine - we walk everywhere though as I don't drive.

I would say one mile is reasonable. I used to walk 1.5 miles to and from primary school.

For a five year old a mile is fine!

I'd say a mile or so. My 3 year old walks 3/4 of a mile to preschool and often needs a lift back on the buggy board, I'm imagining him doing similar to and from school in a couple of years.

A mile is fine. We walk just under a mile from school everyday. It is brilliant one on one time with my DD(5). Admittedly it is more fun when it isn't cold and raining but even the rain can be interesting and fun to a 5 year old

A mile is fine but I'd buy him a scooter or a bike to make the journey easier for all of you.

I'd agree with the consensus of a mile being fine.

DS1's school is 3/4 of a mile away, very walkable - and DS2 (4) walks about a mile, as he comes with us all the way to school, then part way back to pre-school. They sometimes scoot, and I occasionally put DS2 on my back, but mostly we just walk and it's a nice bit of exercise and freshish air for us all.

We walk just over a mile and have done since DD started reception. It's fine, but I wouldn't want it to be much further because obviously I have to do twice the distance and it would start to take too much time.

www.sustrans.org.uk/change-your-travel/children-and-families/school-run

Glad I'm not being totally ridiculous! As I said, it's a few years away yet; I imagine he'll have a scooter or bike by then. I used to love the walk home from school too - can imagine looking forward to hearing all about DS's day (and then him probably refusing to tell me).

I do walk everywhere - unless I have to transport something heavy or the weather is really awful, I usually walk rather than drive a few miles. DH, on the other hand, will get in the car to get milk, when the shop is about 3 minutes' walk away. I'd rather DS took after me on this one!

Fine. Driving less than a mile is outrageous IMO.

puddock, I'm a Sustrans volunteer, so I'd feel twice as bad rocking up in the car! Sustrans do a lot of work in the school we're talking about too; the kids are encouraged to walk or cycle to school, and they have regular "bike to school" fortnights!

We just had a "bike to school" fortnight. It was a complete farce. They didn't count walking, only scooters or bikes. It's too dangerous for my 6 year old to scoot while I push a pram so I ended up carrying the scooter to just round the corner from the school and then she "scooted" into school so she wasn't left out of the prize draws, golden tickets, free breakfast and general pressure to conform by the school.

Meanwhile I saw lots of parents driving to the carpark across the road from the school and unloading the bikes and scooters from the back of the car so they could join in with the rewards.

I did ask sustrans what the point was and apparently if you start cycling as a child you're more likely to continue as an adult. They included scooting as a "gateway" to cycling but not walking. So there you are - taking a car on the school run and "cycling" across a road is more healthy than walking over a mile. Despite the fact that it doesn't remove any cars from the road and the children were only covering the same distance by bike that they would have done on foot from the carpark.

we walk exactly a mile - takes us 15-20mins in the AM, longer after school. However, it did take me a while to get dd1 up to a reasonable walking pace when we started, and I'm sure dd2 will be the same when she starts in September, and will probably need to allow 25-30 mins for the first half term.