Walking To And From School

[fruitsalad]

I know I use to walk myself to and from school by myself, as a kid, but the worlds changed since then, so what age would you let a child walk, to and from school alone? The school is about a quarter of a mile from the child's home.

[barry1010]

Depends on the child, the type of roads and the traffic.

[Peter Pedant]

No answer - - but
in the fifties 90% childrens playtime was spent outside the sight of parents or any adult and
now 90% is spent WITHIN the sight of an adult
no on has thought to see what if any effect this has on children growing up

and yesterday - I saw the parents outside the primary skool and pointed this out - - parents now collecting kids from school
( whilst we ran riot and er robbed the sweet shops)

[allenlondon]

"whilst we ran riot and er robbed the sweet shops" - I knew we had a lot in common.

[bednobs]

probably end of primary/beginning of secondary

[Cloverjo]

I’d say about 8 years old is ok. Depending on the child, traffic, road-crossing.

[pastafreak]

I had to start putting my daughter on a (school) bus before she was 10 iirc. Fine in the mornings, but worrying in the dark afternoons when she was the last and only one on the bus.
Otherwise, the walk to to local primary was less than 10 minutes...and I think I always took her. Everyone else drove.

[woofgang]

I think the world has changed too much to compare. When I was a child, I lived in Battersea on a "busy road" which meant we saw about 5 cars an hour. I was allowed to walk to school alone (around 15 mins) as in no one at all with me from about age 8 which was when my older sister changed schools. before that we walked together simply because we were going in the same direction. None of my friends lived near us so there was no one to go in a group with. Age 11 I was walking 10 minutes to the bus stop, getting a bus accross London alone and doing a ten minutes walk across genuinely busy roads (central London) to school.
so really alone or alone in terms of no adults? city or country lane? busy road with cars? does it need to be crossed? and child street smart and confident or more retiring?

[Peter Pedant]

Before I started school ( 5 1/2)
I told my mother I wanted to take the bus from Beaminster to Bridport ( that was when they ran hur hur hur) - and so it was arranged. I sat in the office in High West St until it left .....

Six of us regularly did bus journey s1958-60 to and fro school ( and were secretly supervised I afterwards found out) - to a school that cannot be named as it is one of the schools from hell on Frith. ("I was the only boy not beaten in my class so the rest of the class,,,,,)

I told one old bagguz grandchild we were regularly clouted in class (see above) and his eyes went like dinner plates ....

[TrevorThePug]

Depends on a lot of local factors, but around my way its generally Year 6 (aged 10-11) but in groups, not alone.

[Peter Pedant]

Sixty yearn agoo
it was only ten years after the war and any ex-serviceman ( ie all the men) had seen refugee children fending for themselves in the East

evenI was er surprised how independent my father thought we were (like take a shotgun into a shop and buy cartridges - police called)

[woofgang]

not just in the East PP, in Italy too. My dad I think came home decided that he would protect his family in the ways that he had been unable to protect the families he had seen.

[bhg481]

My dad was in Egypt with the RAF during the war but was happy for me to take myself to school (apart from the first day) in 1950. We lived in a small market town in Lancashire, so quiet roads.

[Jackdaw33]

I started school in 1954. My mother took me, collected me at lunchtime then took me back and collected me in the evening. The following morning she took me again then told me I could now find my own way back. She never collected me again. I was a few days short of 5.

[mushroom25]

I was escorted to school with brother + sister to age 10, but walked home alone from age 7 as my younger siblings weren't at the big school and finished 30 mins earlier. being driven to school was in the too difficult box as it required an almost suicidal right turn across 2 lanes of 40 MPH continuous traffic. I wasn't truly alone until the last 15 minutes though as friends who lived near the school would walk along. moving to "senior" school required a 20mn walk, a 4 stop tube journey and a 15mn bus ride. again being driven was out of the question as it required crossing the Western Avenue, with its attendant 25mn queues in both directions.

[ummmm]

Upper school. Their schools were a few miles away though

[Apc2604]

The world has changed. At 6 I was walking a mile to school, or getting a London Transport bus. At 9 I was travelling by underground and overground trains from Wimbledon to Whitton by one of two ways, one involving changing at Clapham Junction. I haven't a clue at what age I would now let a child walk to school. I live very rurally, and it would involve walking down a busy main road and country lanes for about 2 or 3 miles. I let my son cycle to school when he was 9 or 10, but that was back in the late 80s. My main reason for worrying would be about the huge increae in traffic.
I have worked in schools and their is a vast difference in the maturity of kids, some are still like babies when they come to school, others are quite capable of doing a lot more. Children that are coddled are a nightmare!

[DarceyK123]

My children went on their own when they started Senior school, it was only 5 minutes away. i took them for the first day but after that they did it themselves.

[david small]

7/8. I walked to school at 5. Birmingham Center.

[Apc2604]

My child at 12 would be devasted to be escorted to school by a parent to senior school.

[rockyracoon]

My two always got the school bus so they never really walked. But I let them walk to the bus stop on their own from about the age of 9, iirc. It was just up the road from the house.