moving up day on Friday- ds walking to new school

[MaryAnnSingleton]

it's moving up day on Friday and ds will be going into his new secondary school for the day - they have to be there first thing so he'll be walking for the first time right across town,over 2 horribly busy roads to big new school (and back at 3pm) - I'm being calm about it but I will feel anxious about him I know. I've arranged for him to walk with a boy in his class but even so, it's a big new step. Silly really as before his age I often walked several miles along the south circular road in London or along the Thames towpath from Chiswick if I'd mised the school bus ! ds is a careful boy, perhaps over cautious, not sure if that's good or bad !

i feel for you - it must be hard - but come sept he will be doing it daily.

could you do the walk with him a few times and discuss points where to cross the road and what to look for?

Don't have this problem, as DS catches a bus, feel for you though.

Any chance of a practise run before Friday?

he goes to choir just near the new school - we usually drive and park before the main road and cross there and I tell him the safest place to go (unfortunately it's not the easiest place, he'd have to walk further down and back up again - I can see that it'd be tempting to cross at the closest point)
I know he'll be doing it from Sept. so part of me is very pleased that this is a trial run and we'll have got over that hurdle.
It would be bad if I shadowed them,from a discreet distance, no ?

shadow them, what do you think ?

ds1 will be going to school in the next town, which he doesn't know, travelling by service bus. On his second 'visit day' he agreed to return by bus, including finding the bus stop.

He admitted to waiting "for a minute or so" at the wrong bus stop and eventually arrived home about one hour after I expected him back!

He was fine: bubbling with excitement and enthusiasm as he'd actually ended up on the school bus, so had got to talk to lots of the older pupils at the bus stop.

I, of course, was a nervous wreck by that point!

oh well done to you ds roisin ! I want ds to feel he's achieved something and that I've trusted him...am so grateful it's only a walk away from home (about 10-15 mins)

Oh I remember those feelings! I felt really jittery when DS1 started secondary school, even though we were only a 5 minute walk away then. We'd just moved here and it was my first ish experience of letting him go somewhere alone as we'd lived in London before that.

It does get easier though. After a few weeks I relaxed quite a lot about it. Now we live in a village about 3 miles from school and he often cycles. I again was very jittery (especially as last yr some idiot opened his car door and knocked him off his bike) but I now just accept that he isn't daft and he will be safe. He is now 14 (in YR10 in Sept and is always out with his friends anyway.

We move house in August and ds amd dd will have to manage to get to their different schools alone or they'll cycle if it's dry. I'm moving one week before school starts so we can do the walk/ride together - I plan on doing it every day 'til they know it off by heart and then I'll be able to cope with waiting for them to get back - I'll be noting the times we take to get to each school and then adding a few minutes for dawdling and then telling them that's how long they have to get home before I start to worry! I'm not looking forward to it, they're 8 and 10 years old but suppose we have to let go and I can't split myself in 2 and go with both of them, although I might just be passing 'by chance' at home time some days.

I like the idea of just passing 'by chance' !

it's today and have sent ds off - he was walking there with my friend's ds...he is wearing short trousers - maybe I should have put him in long ? argh ! - friend was wearing long trousers and is much taller and looks older than ds..maybe the older kids will look after him as he looks so wee and cute ? gah !

It's summer, he'll be fine! Were they atleast trendy cool skater shorts?! When does he get back?

school shorts ! back at 3...

Oh of course , sorry I'm abroad and totally forget the existance of school uniforms!

it's just that they don't wear school shorts in secondary - but I guess he is still a primary boy !