What age is ok to walk home alone

[BipolarBabe34]

My DS 7 is asking to walk home alone now he is in junior school. I absolutely will not allow this at the moment as I personally feel he’s far too young but it got me thinking what age would people say is ok for a child to walk home alone?

we live about 5-10 min walk away from the school. I could even stand at the end of my road and watch him up to the lollipop lady.

TIA for replies xx

End of year 5 if you think they’re sensible enough.
My DS has just started secondary school and I’ve noticed that those who were walking to and from school during year 6 have been the most independent going into year 7.
Leaving it until they start year 7 is too late imo.

I saw a y3 child cycling the 15 minutes to school by herself this morning. Too young.

I started allowing my DS1 to walk home by himself in the summer term of y5. Once a week at first then it built up. Now he’s in y7 and does it with a friend e every day.

I have a y4 8yo and no way is he going to school by himself yet.

Apparently children don’t have a good judge of traffic speed until closer to age 10.

From year 5
but it’s not about age, it’s maturity. I know some kids who would be fine from year 5 and others who practically still need ‘picking up’ from secondary school!

I think the judging traffic speed is closer to 12 even but that's why you teach children to only cross the road when the cars have stopped rather than crossing when they think they are slowing down. This is how we teach children to cross roads in Finland and most are crossing independently from 6/7 years old (though some clearly did not pay attention when they were taught, but I find those to be the minority and most cross sensibly round my way and grow up to be the adults that don't cross when the red man is showing even if there's no cars anywhere - rule-abiding)

Mine were Y4. I gradually met them further and further away, starting on the corner within sight of the school and over a term or more kept moving one junction further away until they were confident with the 15 minute walk. I still met them at school if they wanted me to or after school clubs when fewer people were around. We were in a village and this was 10-15 years ago. They were all confidently getting themselves around the village in Y5. But it definitely depends where you live. In some areas it would need to be later because of distance or heavy traffic. However, if they are going to be travelling independently for secondary school I believe it is very unfair to be walking them door to door in Y6 but suddenly expect them to be able to travel to and from school alone in Y7 when they might be having to make their way by a combination of walking, bus or train to another town/city, or across a busy town or city. It's really throwing them in the deep end and much better for them to build up to this gradually. Which is why we started very slowly in Y4.

This works if they’re using an actual crossing, but not otherwise. Teaching mine not to cross if there were any moving cars works reasonably well, but there is one crossroads where you’d be waiting a very long time doing that ( it’s not really busy enough to need lights but is rarely completely clear).

We only have one set of traffic lights in my entire town, everywhere else its just zebra crossings but it still works on them because cars stop when kids are waiting to cross.

10, and only then if they’re sensible and the route doesn’t involve big roads.

Mine started going home with a friend at 10.

Totally depends on the kid and the route. Mine started back end of Y4 after some practise runs of me walking a bit behind to show he was crossing roads safely. It wasn’t a difficult journey, no big roads and he is pretty sensible.

I try very hard to ensure he is allowed appropriate independence, it often is allowed a bit earlier than a lot of his peers. I think it’s important they learn to cope with things by themselves and develop a bit of resilience in order to become functioning adults and that’s been lost a bit in recent years.

My kid’s primary school let the Y6 kids walk home, as long as they had consent from the parents. My 2 are somewhat scatty so I didnt allow them until Y7, when we had rehearsed the trip several times!

Middle school system where I live so the kids start walking from Y5 when they move into middle school, although some started towards the end of Y4 in first school. So my DD is 9 and has been walking, the route is safe, all roads have safe crossings and it’s a large school so there’s lots of others walking too.

Our school allow it from Y6. It’s really only the children who live very close to school that do it who don’t have major roads. There’s no direct bus to the nearest town either.