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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Walking to school

28 replies

Amy68 · 29/11/2009 21:50

I was curious how many children actually walk to school these days. My DD is 10 and usually does walk to and from school, and has since about 8, as do most at her school from about this age. In bad weather she might get a lift but this is an exception. She doesn't have far to walk, and only one main road to cross which has a crossing officer.

I do however know more parents don't let their children walk themselves than in my days at school, presumably for their own safety. Is this rather a shame? I think starting the day with a little exercise is actually good for the mind, and of course gives the children some independence and lear to look after themselves. Of course as the bad weather approaches it may get different.

What does everyone else notice. Do your children walk or get taxied every day? What about other children at the school?

OP posts:

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DrZeus · 29/11/2009 21:52

We walk to school - less than a mile away. Mind you, I do work there as a TA as well. DS1 (nearly 8) is already asking when he can walk to school/home on his own. Never mind that I have to go there too!

hobbgoblin · 29/11/2009 21:53

My eldest two walk to school and are aged 9 and 8. They have a 3 minute walk.

I let my 6 year old go with them this Term and then got a letter from school disallowing this. So, he has to wait until he is Key Stage 2 which is fair enough I suppose but not sure I entirely agree with their wisdom.

IdrisTheDragon · 29/11/2009 21:54

My DC walk (or scoot or ride a bike) but with me or another adult as they are 6 and 4.

I would envisage DS (older one) walking to middle school on his own when he is in year 5 but that depends on whether the council keeps three tier or two tier education.

While he and DD are at the same school there would seem little point in him walking when DD would be going there anyway, but middle school starts a little earlier in the morning I think.

We are about 10-15 minutes walk from school.

bigchris · 29/11/2009 21:55

i walk my five yr old to schooleveryday except the two i work cos i drop him off and then have to travel to work straight after, school is on route

JingleAllTheWay · 29/11/2009 22:01

We always walk, always have, it takes about 20 mins. Children at our school tend to start walking in pairs / small groups in the summer term of year 5, so now DS age 10 walks with his mates.

DrZeus - my DD's best mates mum was a TA and her DD would call for mine, the girls would walk one way, and the mum would walk a different route!

hocuspontas · 29/11/2009 22:01

Some reasons for less children walking now -

More children living outside the normal area. e.g. housing estates built in the middle of nowhere with no school provision, larger catchments where some schools have closed so not all children within reasonable walking distance any more.
More mums work so drop off on their way because they haven't got time to get there and back before they have to leave for work.
Not enough safe places to cross, roads with no pavements.

I think most people walk where I live because parking is so limited.

Hulababy · 29/11/2009 22:01

DD's school is 3-4 miles away and not in walking distance. DH takes her in the car - he would have to drive past the gates on his journey anyway, and I collect her, by car, in the afternoon. Most children travel by car to DD's school as most people live a few miles away.

DD does get her excise in other ways and is very active from morning til night.

Even if DD went to the local school - about a mile or so away - we would have to drive because of me and DH having to get to work.

Chaotica · 29/11/2009 22:04

We walk (to nursery every day). DD is 3 and it's about a 10 min walk for her. (DS comes with us - he's 2 - but he does sometimes get a lift in the buggy.)

ReneRusso · 29/11/2009 22:05

I walk with my children (age 9 and 7), but haven't let them do it on their own yet. It's only about 0.5 mile but 4 roads to cross. We are the goody-goodies, most children at the school are driven.

DontHauntMeBaby · 29/11/2009 22:06

We walk - as I have had to explain to DD several times, if we tried to drive we'd end up walking further than if we set out to walk, seeing as our road is unofficial overflow parking for the school anyway.

Once DD is in KS2 she can walk by herself, as long as there is a lollipop person by then - been without one for over a year, and the one road apart from our road that we need to cross is HORRIBLE.

Clary · 29/11/2009 23:15

Most of the children in our school walk (according to the figures anyway).

Or do you mean walk unaccompanied? My DS1 is 10 and in yr 6 and has been walking - picking up a friend en route - since the start of the school year.

Many of the pupils in his yr and yr below do something similar.

I walk a bit later with DD and DS2. We are about 10 mins' walk away.

Most of the people who do come by car are from out of catchment tbh, tho there are a few lazybones people who choose to drive from within the area, say 15 mins walk. Now that baffles me.

cory · 30/11/2009 07:47

Ds (9) walks to school and always has. Walks home alone since age 8, but does like me to walk up with him in the morning if I have time- just for the company, nothing to do with safety.

Dd(13, who is disabled, has fluctuated between walking, being carried and going in a wheelchair: now has disabled transport as distance is too great for me to push the chair (have dodgy wrists).

hippipotamiHasLost77lbs · 30/11/2009 07:57

We have always walked, the exception being if I had to be somewhere straight after in which ase we would drive (but this has only happened 5 times in 6 years of schooling!

Am not clear wether your OP refers to walking (as opposed to taking the car) or walking on their own without parents?
Disclaimer - it is early and I need coffee)

So, we have always walked and for the past year ds (who is 10 and in Y6) has walked on his own. (with dd and I not too far behind as I still have to walk her to school and I work there as a TA)

Ds will walk home by himself if he staying behind for an after-school club. (

FourArms · 30/11/2009 08:07

DS1 is 5, so too young to walk himself. We are lucky, in that if we're still here when he's old enough to walk, the journey, with the exception of the road right outside, is all across parkland, with no roads to cross.

DS2 is 2 years younger though, so I don't imagine I'd let DS1 walk by himself until DS2 is old enough.

sarah293 · 30/11/2009 08:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

pagwatch · 30/11/2009 09:16

I walk DD to school in the mornings - its about 20 mins walk ( we are fucking soaking this morning but that is another thread).
DS1 walks too and has all through senior school - but he is a five minute walk from here.
There are few girls in DDs prep that walk but then most live a car drive away. Once they reach senior school though most get the train and walk up to school from the station.

The thing that does annoy me is the huge percentage of parents who think that even on warm dry days it is important to park as close to the school gate as possible. At my sons previous school I had to drive him but I parked about a ten minute walk from the school. He got to stretch his legs and I didn't have to deal with the mad parking on the school gate even if you have to kkill somone people crush. I had parked there for a few weeks before one morning we saw one of his friends come out of his drive a little closer to school in mums car . Literally a five minute walk and she drove him

I know some people have time constraints etc butthis woman didn't and lots of others don't. I can't understand why they don't see the advantage of a small walk in the morning before a child has to sit at a desk for several hours. Barking

FimbleHobbs · 30/11/2009 10:37

I love the days when DS can walk to school but because school starts at 9am and technically so does my job 15 minutes drive away, it is very rare that I can walk him there or I'd be even later for work than I already am!

CaurnieBred · 30/11/2009 11:50

I think we should be shot if we didn't walk DD to school - is 13 houses along, on the same side of the road (I can see the playground from my back window!). It is only an infant school though, so she needs to be dropped and collected (some mornings I am chasing after her and she is halfway there by the time I catch up).

Today I had the waterproof trousers and wellies on both of us - dire so it was!

Linnet · 30/11/2009 12:03

Both my dd's walk to school. Dd1 is at secondary school so walks herself, her school is only 5 minutes from our house. When she was at primary school we walked her to school,if the weather was really bad sometimes we'd go in the car.

DD2 has just started P1 and again we walk to school, her school is just under a mile from our house and it's too far for her to walk by herself, she's only 5 anyway so wouldn't be walking alone yet. If the weather is really bad we sometimes go in the car.

The primary school is on my way to work so I drop her off on the way. In a couple of years time though the primary school is moving to the same are as the secondary school, will all be on one site. That is in the completely opposite direction from my work, so I won't be able to walk dd2 to school dh will have to do it.

Oh and there are no children in my dd's classes that live near us, nobody passes us going to the same school and we don't go past anyone else, so they don't have the option of walking with friends to school

madamearcati · 30/11/2009 14:38

We live in a small village where nobody (except a few out of catchment children) is much more than about 500m away so nearly everyone walks.Many children walk on their own from about 8 upwards.

Hobbgoblin how can the school impose their superior wisdom on to you ?
I can understand them not wanting to release him into the care of a 9 yr old but they have no right to say how he gets there.I am absolutely gob smacked at the cheek of some schools.Parents round here would not stand for that sort of crap.

HotOtter · 30/11/2009 21:53

I walk with my 9 year old. He would like to walk alone, but due to the parents who park on the yellow zigzags outside the school and on the double yellows at the end of the road where the school is and sometimes on double yellows actually on the corners of the road - it is impossible to find a safe place to cross the road.
I find it a bit hairy myself trying to cross the road outside school, because you have to go into the road to try to cross (because of all the illegal parking) and there is just so much traffic (from parents who don't like walking).
I may be ranting a little, but it does make me quite angry.

feedthegoat · 30/11/2009 21:59

Ds is only at morning nursery but we walk every day, about 3/4 of a mile I think each way. He has no choice as I don't drive.

Mind you, dh was off the other day and took us in the car as it was raining and we ended up parked nearly as far away!

duckyfuzz · 30/11/2009 22:05

I drop my twins off on my way to work, they are nearly 6, it is a mile to walk. I can't walk them there, walk home again and get to work on time (and i drive past the school en route to work!)

Pluto · 30/11/2009 22:11

We use the Walking Bus in rain, shine, snow and sun. It's about a mile to the school from our house. I don't have the option of a car as DH takes it to work, so we have walked pretty much everyday since DC started school - in Y5 now. He is accompanied in the mornings but about 3 times a week he walks home on his own.

MollieO · 30/11/2009 22:30

We drive. Too far to walk but even if we wanted to there are no footpaths and 60 mph speed limit country lanes.

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