Age children can collect siblings and walk home??

[SJKT]

New to site - need ideas...
I have 2 DS (5 & 8)
My issue is that my Father in law is main carer, recent heart attack and stent - he is doing well and really really wants to keep collecting my DS and my niece. My problem is he has to park quite a distance away (next door to my nieces school), walk to my DS school then walk back again and collect my niece.
I was considering allowing my eldest DS to collect little one - leave the school - cross one main road (lollipop lady) and then just walk to my nieces school. This is not far as I am hoping my nieces school will allow them to cut through it.
This just means whilst my in law recovers he can drive to one school and just wait in the car.

However are there legal ramifications, can my DS school refuse to allow the older one to collect the younger etc?? Sorry for such a long post!

It is so difficult to answer this without knowing your children and the environment properly, but if it helps you to make up your mind, my 10 yo ds and my 8 yo dd regularly take my 5 yo ds to school.

But, there are no roads to cross (or even to walk down as there is a streamside path between us and the school) and of course my 10 yo ds is 2 years older than your ds, and also, I also have a 12 yo ds who sometimes walks with them.

Re picking up from school, I have found that the teacher usually lets the 5 yo go now without having to see me (at the beginning of the year, they were very strict about having to see the adult collecting). Sometimes I send my 8 yo dd up the playground to get him. But I am always there if needed.

I think what you want to do might be considered a bit dodgy by the school, but then, I imagine they think what I do is dodgy too.

I think you have to ask the school what their policy is. Our village primary was v. hot on this and insisted on ds being collected by an adult right up to the end of yr6 when he was 11.75 yrs old

I think you would have to tell us more about the environment too - what country you rae in and what kind of walk - distance and main roads etc - you are talking about. Also a mature 8 yr old can be very mature whilst an immature 12 yr old can be v immature and not be trusted. A lot depnds on the maturity of the child responsible as well as the 5 yr old - doe she have a tendency to run off or will he walk sensibly and listen to older sibling/hold hands etc.

good grief mumblechum - Really? until that old?

I think that is truly ridiculous to have a blankrt rule until that age.

As for the OP - difficult to say. I'd prefer it actually if the 8 year old were waling on their own and would be happier with that. Having an 8 year old responsible for a 5 year old seems a little bit young but a lot depends on how sensible the children (both of them) are.

At our school KS2 children don't have to be collected by an adult. They are also allowed to collect younger siblings.

I would ask your school what their policy is for this.

our local primary only allows 16+ to collect children.
most schools round here the teacher has to eyeball the parent before the child is released.

You need to ask the school. Ours wouldn't allow it at KS1.

Our infants school only allowed children to be collected by adults or teenagers; in juniors (so from age 7/8) they don't check.

Thanks so much for all the ideas.
Finlaw will be walking soon but needs to be sure medication is working so this situation .
Thee school is on main road - but the crossing is manned and when they are walking along it there is wide pavement - then a wide strip of grass and the the road. Also at school kicking out time the road is pretty grid lock!
Both kids very mature (my 8 yr old is always nagging about walking to school alone!)but I too would be happier making different arrangements for the little one. I think I will speak with school to find out the policy and then take it from there!

cory - surprised to hear that in juniors they don't check who and if anyone collects them. What happens if god forbid a 7/8 year old goes missing? Can't imagine that would go down well in eyes of parents/ police that school never checked who they left grounds with or whether they did at all?

At my school there is security guard at playground entrance ( parent rota) checking who is going with whom - no kids even at age 11 are allowed to leave by themselves) and up the slope from the playgroudn at entrance to main road is another security guard ( parent and external) checking that no kids run out by themselves ( it does happen wiht these kids fairly frueqently and we are always getting reminder letters to make sure kids picked up promplyt and supervised in playground and not allowed to run out alone).

Would not feel safe in a school where official policy is not to check who picks up 7/8 year olds at all.

MY Ds1 has been collecting DD (aged 5) for the last year on a Friday.
He is bigger though - 14 years old.
But my point is I chatted with the school about it first and they were happy to help me form a a view re route, maturity of DS and DD in terms of DD having to follow his instructions.
I would talk to the school.

My ds and his best friend walk home with the friend's sister sometimes - ds and friend are 7 and in year 3, sister is 11 and in year 6. The did it last year too, when they were 6 and 10. It's about a half mile walk with two crossings, one outside the school where there are always lots of people crossing too and one at a zebra. But it does depend on the children concerned - some 5 year olds are sensible enough to walk home alone - some 11 year olds aren't!

Oh and I would be FURIOUS with a school that wouldn't let year 6s walk home alone! How can they get any practice for secondary school?

IN ds school to be it is down in the policy that they cannot be collected from children within the infant or junior school but has to be someone older and responsible

Very few children in Year 5 and 6 are collected in the school my children go to. At least, some Year 5 parents collect (myself included though in my case only because I am collecting younger ones) but a lot of the Year 5s I know go off home or playing leaving their parents chatting in the playground! I am not sure why some parents bother collecting given these circumstances! But I agree with Seeker that it is ridiculous not to allow Year 6 and maybe even Year 5 to walk home alone.

And it is standard in our school not to check on who is picking the children in KS2 up.

Our infant school has a policy of named people collecting children, and won't allow Junior school children to collect.
Juniors leave the decision to parents.

I wouldn't be happy leaving an 8 yr old responsible for a younger sibling, even if the school accepted it as a short term arrangement.

are any other parents going that way or could anyone walk your kids there as not far?

I have a very sensible 8-year-old who occasionally walks home alone. I would never allow her to pick up her 5-year-old sister (who is nowhere near sensible) because I think it would be an unfair amount of responsibility to give her. Actually, tbh, I wouldn't even let my almost 11-year-old do this. Only you can make that judgement for your DSs though.
But I know our school does not allow KS1 children to be picked up by under 16s and you may find that yours has a similar rule.

So with ks2 children they can just leave the school grounds and wander off at hometime and no-one is repsonsible for checking that they are safe/being collected/going home? I find this incredulous given the immaturity of most 7-9 year olds that someone isn't looking out for them. As a teacher ( i'm not but if I were) I would be incredibly concnered that my 7 year old were leaving class wihtout any supervision on walk home or any care/attnetion paid to the fact that he is ok to get home and reaches safely.

At our school in KS1 they are brought out into the playground and collected. For KS2, you have to tell the school what arrangements you've made - and if you say they can walk home alone they can, although the teacher still brings year 3 and 4 out into the playground. Years 5 and 6 just leave.

our school is really strict, children can only leave with an adult, no children, even year 6, can leave alone. If child is to be picked up by someone who is not known to school we must be informed by parent otherwise we will not let child leave

So they go straight from being picked up by an adult in year 6 to finding their own way home on the bus 8 weeks later? How does that work?

Sounds bonkers to me. DD2 is in Year 3 and walks home alone now and again, DD1 has been doing so regularly since Year 5.

Ds' school is quite relaxed - and I am happy with it that way.

Personally, if you are confident in the maturity and sensibility of your ds' then I'd be OK with waht you propose. The reason that Lollipop Ladies/Men are there are precisely for that puposes: to ennsure that young children on their own can cross the road safely.