Year 7 travel - what is reasonable?

[FrenchFancie]

I can’t decide if this journey is a reasonable one for DD to do alone from September or not. It’s only at the end of the day as we can drop off in the morning.

walk from school through nice quiet housing estate, cross one mildly busy road (but there’s a crossing point) walk about 20 minutes all in. Wait 15 minutes for a bus, bus ride of about 5 minutes home. Dropped at the top of our road.

cant walk all the way home as no footpath, we live in a small hamlet about a mile outside of the small town her secondary school is in.

DD has never independently traveled. She is autistic, but generally low support needs. She’s a bit naive.

i can’t decide if this is a reasonable thing for her to do, or if we should look into changing work / get a taxi? We thought she would be able to use a dedicated school bus but the local
authority has cut funding from next year so no bus. The whole journey is under 3 miles so they say that the local authority isn’t obligated to think about transport.

Try her in the holidays . You can do it with her , then meet her at certain points . It isn’t an unreasonable journey . How she manages it with the autism no one can answer but you

Pretty normal for 11yo really. Lots of leeway for dawdling before the bus.

Just lots if practice of the walking route. Get her to text you when she's on the bus at first.

i would agree, its not an unacceptable journey now for year 7.. but as also mentioned, do it a few times with her, or arrange to walk her too the bus and then meet her from the bus at the end of the day

Sounds fine. You also sound very calm and measured. Agree with the others - try a few times over the summer to see how it goes and help her get the hang of it.

Do it with her as others have mentioned.
Run through unexpected scenarios - bus is late / breaks down, road works on the journey etc.

Her bus is unlikely to be too busy with that walk before hand but she may want to stay for after-school clubs too and it might be dark on her way home. I strongly recommend after school clubs for year 7s it's a great way to make new friends and if she is a school and home have to stay separate type of autie then homework club is a great option.

Totally normal! I had a 45 min journey like that age 11, and loads of kids at my dc school have far more complicated and lengthy journeys.

Make sure your dc knows what to do if the bus doesn’t arrive or they get an after school detention or other scenarios.

There might be a homework club she can attend after school which may help you with timings if you are worried and could collect her or after school clubs. Ds went to a club that finished at 5pm once a week.

Are they allowed mobile phones? We set the children up so that their phone would go onto silent just before they got to school and then automatically back on when they left school meaning they didn't need to remember to turn it off or on. We also share location on Google Maps, they can see us as well as us seeing them.

Is there anyone else travelling that route? Anyone from primary and they can meet up after school?

Failing that, you do it with her over summer but narrate things to be aware of and look out for. What to do if the bus doesn't arrive and how to shut down conversations with anyone she doesn't feel comfortable talking to. Practise that with her and if she can she can ring you or her Dad and tell you about the person at the bus stop with her. Remember it will be darker as winter draws round.

It will seem scary at first (probably more for you than her) both after a few weeks it becomes very normal.
It’s a really big step y7- I’ve had 3 kids go through it recently.
practice a few times first for sure and if it were me I might even get the first couple of days off work so I can meet her on the walk and travel back together.

Fine for year 7.

You need to do it with her a few times slowly withdrawing support.
Work out what you want her to do if the bus doesn't come/she misses the stop etc.

Mobile phone also a good idea.

I had mega wobbles about my autistic DS doing a similar journey home - he walks 15 mins or so down the hill, crosses the road at a slightly hairy junction, and waits 5 - 20 mins for a rather unpredictable bus, which then takes him about 10-15 mins to get back to our village.
We waited about half a term before we gave it a go (he was nervous too). I met him a couple of times - first time at school, second time at the bus stop, third time at the bus stop by our house when he got off. He found a fellow Y7 who walks down the same hill to get home, so they can cross the road together.
Now he is totally relaxed about it.

He shares his ETA with me on maps when he gets on the bus, and I can track him on find my iphone as he walks down the hill.

Do some practice runs with her, and I'm sure she will get used to it quickly. And then if she finds other kids doing the same route, or at least part of it, that can help too.
We are now helping my friend's DS in Y6 get used to using the bus as he will have to next year, as his primary is right next to DS's school - they are meeting and doing the journey together.

We've only had one instance of DS getting on the wrong bus 🙈thankfully when he realised and got off, he was on the parallel road to ours, so it only took me a couple of mins to whizz down in the car to get him! (and he could have walked back from there at a push... but he was rather upset!)

Few practice runs and a phone / back up plan and she'll be fine

This sounds normal for a trip to and from secondary. I stepped through new journeys on Google maps yo hell my ds in Y7.

It's a godsend really because after a very short time they grow so much in confidence and independence.

I never had any worries about independent journeys as I was much more independent at the same age.

If it’s under 3 miles but is an unsafe walking route, transport might be available. Have you actually asked?

Sounds ok to me.

I have an autistic ds now in y10.

We did the journey together several times between June & September.

His journey is a 10 minute walk through a busy city centre including 2 major road crossings. Wait for a bus for usually 10mins or so. 15 minute bus ride dropping off near the top of our road.

We did have a couple of instances where he forgot to get off the bus and had to walk back from the next stop. Worth having a backup plan for what she should do if that happens, if the walk back would be dangerous.

I think you could start out assuming it's possible. Do practice runs, practice phone calls, make sure she has a contingency plan that she can actually execute.

Working on asking a friend if she can borrow their phone to call you (and checking she knows your number off heart) would be useful. One day inevitably she will end up with no phone.

BUT just be prepared that if things start going pear shaped, you may have to switch to a plan B of collecting her, somehow. Expect the best, plan for the worst, don't leave it until she's at breaking point if it's not working. You have a whole summer for her to practice getting buses by herself and phoning you.

That sounds absolutely fine for an 11 year d.

The waiting 15 mins could be a problem. Is she the type of child who would decide to walk the entire way so there isn't a wait?

Also do you know the parents of any other year 7 kids in your hamlet? It might be worth costing a taxi / minibus between you?

I have a child with autism who had to catch a train and two buses to school on his own when he started secondary. He was a bit unsure at first but we did the journey in both directions and wrote down bus numbers, times and what issues could arise with trains and late buses. He takes it all in his stride now and really helped him gain his independence.
Having Find My Friends on the phone and an air tag gives me additional peace of mind too.