will you be taking your dc to school on their first day of secondary?

[mrsruffallo]

what's the done thing? Will she be the only one with her mother in tow?

I usually take my DDs to school in the morning, when I was working it was on my way. They can catch the bus but it us often late and they like getting in early. Also at the beginning of a school year it is always packed and sometimes they can't get on.
Our Y7 start the day before the rest of the school and I don't think the bus runs so I took both of mine on their first day and most days since. If I can't they happily catch the bus, and they come home on the bus every day unless they have an after school activity.

No, I absolutely wouldn't recommend that action fideline.

The school bus can be a hostile place, IMO it is essential that she is on it in the first few days when they're all establishing their groups. To try and join a week or too later will make things harder, not easier.

You think? Worked here, but than DC were using train not bus....

My daughter's secondary school was nearer than her primary school - we can see it from the house, so there was no need to take her and certainly no need to practise the route.

My son, though, had to go to secondary school by bus (ordinary scheduled route) after years of walking a short distance from home to primary school. No one else he knew was going that way, so the first couple of days I went with him, as discreetly as I could. On his first day his dad and I left work early and met him so we could all go home together. That's a very vivid memory, seeing him heading for the gate amongst hordes of enormous teenagers. So odd to remember now when he is 20 and 6' tall!

Absolutely not.

I would have died if my mum had done this.

Except if you're just dropping them off outside in the car

DD, now year 11, completely said "no" to me taking her on her first day, saying she would love me to but was 100% sure all the other kids would be on their own and she would look like a baby.

Turns out she was the only one without a parent taking them

Have asked dd she said she'd like me to take her. I don't drive, so can't do the discreet drop off.
crazynana, that's an an even tougher call- if your child says a definite no, that is

God no, and my mum never took me, don't think it was even considered

Noooo don't do it! I walked DD to the bus stop with another mum and waved them onto the bus (London red bus, not in the middle of nowhere!) on the first day, but by the time DS started, it didn't even cross my mind

DD would have died from embarrassment if I did. She catches a bus to school and the school said that the quickest way to integrate was to let them catch a bus rather than drive them. They were right.

It is hard to let them go off on the bus to another town...but you really must let her do it and from day 1 as other posters have said. IMVHO.

My DS1 started 6th form college this year in another town and has to go by train...I felt tearful about that and he's huge, perfectly capable and going with 20 others!

Practise over the summer, put money on/charge up her mobile, discuss an emergency plan for what do to if you miss the bus/get on wrong bus/bus doesn't turn up. Make her feel that you think she can totally do this etc.

Then wave her off on day 1, at home, then go inside and bawl your head off.

We did with DS1 and 2 - their choice. We moved house 2 weeks before DS1 started so no chance to practise beforehand so DH took him on the bus the first couple of days. DS2 asked for the same as the Yr7s started the day before the rest of the school - from day 2 he was travelling with DS1 so we didn't bother. DD will be the last so I won't have a conflict with another school run in the opposite direction. If she wants me to travel with her on the first day I will. She'll go with her brothers after that (nice big Yr11 and Yr13s to scare off any upstart Yr7 boys... )

Ha ha ha! NO! I did not take DD to school on her first day! She would have died of embarassment.
I wanted to walk with her to the bus stop and wait to make sure she got on the bus OK, just on the first day, but she was utterly appalled at the idea. I was very firmly told that I was allowed no further than the front door step.

Am shocked that so many people are even considering it.

Really?

No, but mainly because I will be at work.

I walked with DD1 on her first day. The year 7s started the day before the rest of the school and there were plenty of other parents too. That was the only time though / after that she walked with her friends. Dd2 wants me to do the same next year.

Noooo!

Don't do it.

Let them meet up with her mates in the holidays and do a practice journey to sort out meeting places and timings.

Oh, I kind of thought I would (and dd has said she'd like me to) - didn't realise it was such a no no! Dd doesn't yet know many people at her new school (we moved recently, so most of her friends from primary are going to a different school), so she probably won't have anyone to walk with on her first day. I'm not worried about her getting lost (she's walked from our house to the shops near school plenty of times), I just think she'd like some company.

She's going on a Y7 summer camp thing over the summer, so maybe she'll make a friend who lives nearby and be spared the embarrassment of turning up with mum in tow...

At our school it's the done thing. 1st day if year 7 dd1 and all her friends were taken to school by a parent an we were expected to come into school an collect. After that, neither dcs nor school want to know!
Will be same routine w dd2 this September

The meeting up with their mates thing only works if they're going to secondary school with people they know. Both DS1 and 2 were the only people from their primary school to go to their new school. DH said that pretty much all the kids were accompanied by parents on the first day, so it isn't anything unusual for our school. It probably wasn't the case after that first day but there's nothing wrong with doing it, if that's what your child wants.

Didn't take dd1 or dd2 but their school wasn't far.

Ds is going to a school about 2 miles away and we've not quite decided on a plan yet. I had said I'd drop him by car each morning and he could walk back but it's not set in stone.

Tbh it is worrying me. Ds has very poor concentration and only last week was clipped by a car whilst walking home from primary school.

I live in Ireland and its definitely the done thing here to bring your child to school on their first day, in fact I have never heard of anyone who didn't? ! I brought ds1 and will bring ds2 in Sept (I actually bring them to school every day because I have to drive them but would have brought them anyway that day even if they normally walked) . I didn't bring him into the class or anything lol I just dropped him off and wished him well. It's a big step for them and it's nice to share that.