When to 'loosen the reins'

[Elfie23]

Hi all me again!

I'm wondering when people started to let their children do things on their own - for example - ask them to pop to a nearby shop and get some bread, walk to school/home from school on their own etc?

DD is almost 10 (year 5) and I want to start preparing her for secondary school.
At the moment I drop and pick her up from the school playground (we are too far to walk to school would take about 45 mins!) however she has a friend who lives 2minutes from the school (1 side road to cross) in a dead straight line to the school.
I'm thinking of starting by saying I'll park at the friends house and she can walk up without me/come out at the end of the day and walk to the car.
Then slowly wind it back a bit so I wait further down the road and so on?

Do your 10 year olds walk on their own? If so how far?
There is a girl in DD class who walks to school which is a good 15/20 mins on her own everyday!
Also have a friend of friend who lives in a village and her 10yr old son is out with friends for hours (he has a phone).

I'm trying to get prepared (both of us!) for secondary school with the aim that I could maybe drop DD off by the local shops (10 min walk) or by my parents (also about 10 mins) or a friend further back than these by the summer so she is ready to walk to secondary school confidently (our closest is about 15/20mins walk)

Note - it's unlikely she will go to school with any from her class as we don't live near the school she is at now as we had to move

My youngest is 11 and has been going to the shop, the park, the duck pond, school etc alone or with friends since 9 or 10. Started similarly to how you suggest but without the car (I used to let them walk ahead of me or go into one shop as I was in another, for example).

Ive been letting my 10yo year 5 ds out with his 13yo dbro.

He will walk to school in year 6 like a lot of his class but he will be with friends and I'm not letting him walk home alone to an empty house for an hour.

DS just turned 12 last week (but is still in primary — not UK). We live close to a city centre, and his school is a 20/25 minute walk away. He walks to and from daily, and has since last autumn, gets the bus with his friends to football training in another part of the city, and more recently, goes to get his hair cut in the city centre and takes the bus out to his grandparents in a suburb.

Mine is 10. I let her go to the (what we nicknamed) the corner shop.
She's there and back in 15 minutes if she rushes.

And up our road to the post box. About same time.
That's all she's had so far

Going to the park (few mins from house) at 8

20 min walk to school at 10 sounds fine

DS is almost 11 (P6 in Scotland ).

He goes to the park (10ms away) on his bike with friends.

He also plays in the woods/golf course behind the house, but does have a phone with location turned on.

We sent him to the shop a few times and I followed him once to make sure he crosses the road properly.

We plan on letting him go to the cinema + lunch with a friend while I wait outside and observe from a distance.

I want him to be confident navigating roads/streets/paying at shops/self scanning tills etc. but for now it's still very much in a controlled environment.

Thanks for all your comments so far everyone. Sounds like it's roughly the age where everyone is allowing a bit more freedom - I won't be letting her go too far without a phone though x