Rules on children walking home from school

JBD

elvis86 wrote: »

Goodness, how positively dreadful for the poor parents! Heaven forbid they should have to park their car, walk through the school gates and socialise with the other parents!:eek: Or, even more outrageously, be forced to ditch the car and walk to collect their kids!:cool:

Why should they have to when children of this age are perfectly capable of doing it by themselves?

Kimberley82

elvis86 wrote: »

Goodness, how positively dreadful for the poor parents! Heaven forbid they should have to park their car, walk through the school gates and socialise with the other parents!:eek: Or, even more outrageously, be forced to ditch the car and walk to collect their kids!:cool:

Its not about the parents but the children, and teaching them independence.

Plans_all_plans

Exactly Kimberley and IMO it's not up to the school to decide when mine (or anyone else's child) is sensible/mature enough to be given independence. I'm the parent!

andrealm

elvis86 wrote: »

Goodness, how positively dreadful for the poor parents! Heaven forbid they should have to park their car, walk through the school gates and socialise with the other parents!:eek: Or, even more outrageously, be forced to ditch the car and walk to collect their kids!:cool:

Do you think that a 10 year old is incapable of walking through the school gate on their own to a parent waiting in a car right outside the school? Some parents have younger children with them, they might have a baby sleeping in the car, or have a couple of toddlers with them. In which case, it would be far more sensible to have the 10 year old come out to the car.

galvanizersbaby

Kimberley82 wrote: »

My two have just started to go tot the shop together on their own, though the shop in on our road. Scares me silly but they are mainly very sensible.

lol! - how strange I'm similar -we have a Tesco Express shop at the end of our road and DS is asking to cycle down there and back alone.

I've not let him yet but perhaps they could go together - on second thoughts DD may prove to be a bit of a liability.

Got to start sometime though I guess

Kimberley82

galvanizersbaby wrote: »

lol! - how strange I'm similar -we have a Tesco Express shop at the end of our road and DS is asking to cycle down there and back alone.

I've not let him yet but perhaps they could go together - on second thoughts DD may prove to be a bit of a liability.

Got to start sometime though I guess

I dont let them ride there yet, I worry about my DD on her bike near the road, she is a bit unsteady still. I am lucky they get on really well.

alwayspuzzled

the_cat wrote: »

Sounds to me like the school are making it up as they go along in order to cover themselves for the unlikely event that a child is hurt on the way home (not yours necessarily but they will have to offer the same rule to all and not all will be mature enough/live near enough/have only quiet roads to cross etc) Legally I very much doubt if their 'rule' is enforceable as they have no resonsibility for him after hours but for the sake of the next few months, is it really worth the aggro to your son for you to get your own way.

If you are on maternity leave you are availalable anyway and it would be an opportunity to make sure he is safe - you could let him travel well ahead of you and keep an eye from a distance. Then you can be sure he has good habits established by the time Sept comes along

I suspect you are right about it being legally unenforceable but no it is not worth causing him aggro over. I have agreed a solution with his class teacher where she will send him up to infants (other end of the site) where my sister will collect him with her 6yr old and walk him out of school. He will then walk home sometimes with me and sometimes alone.

In sept my dd starts school so we'll all be walking together anyway, the walking home alone was only for this term and I don't need to follow him as he's been allowed to the shops etc for ages and I'm perfectly confident in his ability. TBH I wish I'd left him in afterschool club where OH can collect him after work as for the rest this term I'm either going to be heavily pregnant and struggling (as am at moment) or coping with a newborn and on demand Bf'ing. Obviously if I'd seen bit in the newsletter I wouldn't have given notice to the childcare but I can't get his place back as they always have a huge waiting list.

poly1

Have you contacted you local education authority and asked them if they require schools to have such a policy? Or maybe ask to speak to the schools liason officer and ask what they think. Also do you know any of the school governers because schools cannot just make up policies on the spot generally the goveners have to approve it too.

galvanizersbaby

Kimberley82 wrote: »

I dont let them ride there yet, I worry about my DD on her bike near the road, she is a bit unsteady still. I am lucky they get on really well.

You are - mine are a bit too different to get on really well

GobbledyGook

I'd question the policy because last year my daughter's school tried the same thing and when parents complained it emerged that they could not decide that. Who collects your child at the end of the day is your business and the school had to hastily re-write their policy to read that they would prefer children to be collected. The HT was very firmly put in her place by the authority (and before anyone starts I work in schools so know the importance of respecting the HT's authority - however some HT's go well beyond their remit sometimes!).

It was a piece of nonsense that if allowed to continue meant that when my daughters are 10 and 8 they would not be allowed to leave school without being collected despite the fact you can see our house from the school, there are no roads and I as a parent feel that it is something they should be allowed to do before they have to travel larger distances to secondary school.

There seems to be a real mix of points being made to parents now. On one hand you are told they are your children therefore your responsibility and it's about time parents took responsibility for their children and especially their children's behaviour; yet at the same time you are not allowed to make decisions about your children's capabilities yourself that is up to the school.