Rules on children walking home from school

GobbledyGook

milliebear00001 wrote: »

9-10 year olds are not 'small children'.

The parents would have no recourse to blame the school if something happened to the child while walking home, with parental permission, outside of school hours.

Indeed. Given that schools point blank refuse to get involved in incidents between children out of school as they have "no responsibility outwith school hours or off school premises" all policies like this teach children is that it's ok for the rule makers to be hypocrites imo.

balletshoes

moomoomama27 wrote: »

Yet the parents would still come back to the school and blame them should something happen! Why one would want a small child walking home alone is baffling, at age 8/9, no matter how sensible, they are not mature enough to deal with certain scenarios that may arise.

If you don't like the school policy, by all means challenge it, but if they explain their reasons being a safety issue, then as a parent you need to teach your child to follow the rules!

There are plenty of rules that may seem a little OTT in life, but something like that is not worth getting your knickers in a twist over IMO.

there would be no recourse to the school - as its still the parents choice whether they allow their child to walk home without adult supervision. Just because the school policy is to allow children to leave school at age 8 and upwards without a parent/guardian, doesn't mean the parents/guardians have to let them walk home alone. thats where their knowledge of their child and their capabilities comes in.

milliebear00001

Incidentally, presumably the school also monitor children arriving at school. How does this work - do parents have to 'check them in'? Seems arbitrary to insist on a pick up, but not morning drop-off.

At my school, we have a far bigger issue with parents dumping their kids in the playground from 8.15 to hang around until the doors open at 9am!

GobbledyGook

moomoomama27 wrote: »

Yet the parents would still come back to the school and blame them should something happen! Why one would want a small child walking home alone is baffling, at age 8/9, no matter how sensible, they are not mature enough to deal with certain scenarios that may arise. If you don't like the school policy, by all means challenge it, but if they explain their reasons being a safety issue, then as a parent you need to teach your child to follow the rules!

There are plenty of rules that may seem a little OTT in life, but something like that is not worth getting your knickers in a twist over IMO.

So a school are better judges of safety for our children than the parents are?


I actually think it's very worth getting knickers in a twist over. Most children seem to live much closer to their primary school than they do their secondary school. In my case, for example, it takes 5 minutes max to walk home from primary school, but will be around a 25/30 minute walk to secondary school. I want my children to be experienced in walking home for at least 2 years before they go on to walking the bigger distance. I want them to experience all the possible pitfalls and problems when they are only a few minutes from home and they can actually be seen from our window for the most part before they are further from home. I think it's utterly irresponsible that some parents walk their child to and from primary school every day, but send them off merrily on their first day of secondary school. They've never had the chance to experience what to do if something goes wrong with help close to hand before they risk experiencing it without help close by.

Also it is important that some schools and their HT's are kept in their place. One HT I know got her knuckles rapped for telling parents that she felt children shouldn't be allowed to play in the street as it is not safe - totally not her place. Schools have a very prominent and important place in our society and I teach my children to respect them. However you can still question something whilst showing respect. We should not be teaching our children to blindly follow rules if they have good reason to question them. If there is genuine cause for questioning a rule then we should be equipping our children with the skills to do so in a pleasant, polite and respectful manner.

Jinx

moomoomama27 wrote: »

Yet the parents would still come back to the school and blame them should something happen! Why one would want a small child walking home alone is baffling, at age 8/9, no matter how sensible, they are not mature enough to deal with certain scenarios that may arise. If you don't like the school policy, by all means challenge it, but if they explain their reasons being a safety issue, then as a parent you need to teach your child to follow the rules!

There are plenty of rules that may seem a little OTT in life, but something like that is not worth getting your knickers in a twist over IMO.

I dont agree - as a parent I was always responsible for my child and would only have blamed the school if they had been seriously negligent in school time (and I dont mean normal silly accidents). My child is my responsibility and how that child behaves and gets to and from school is also the parents responsibility.

In the bigger picture I think these ridiculous rules should be challenged, our children are being wrapped in cotton wool, dumbed down and as parents our autonomy is being eroded. While some children need further help and protection - the majority do not.

Spendless

moomoomama27 wrote: »

Yet the parents would still come back to the school and blame them should something happen! Why one would want a small child walking home alone is baffling, at age 8/9, no matter how sensible, they are not mature enough to deal with certain scenarios that may arise. If you don't like the school policy, by all means challenge it, but if they explain their reasons being a safety issue, then as a parent you need to teach your child to follow the rules!

There are plenty of rules that may seem a little OTT in life, but something like that is not worth getting your knickers in a twist over IMO.

We're talking a child who will be at Secondary within 16 months. There's nothing to stop someone who wishes to accompany their child to and from school doing so. As I already said, if you start letting children walk from September (the OP's school allows this in yr 6)within a few weeks the clocks have changed &, the weather is getting worse. If you wait until the Spring/Summer months for the lighter better weather of yr 6 then the child only has a short while to get used to travelling alone before (the usually further away) Secondary school approaches.

I'm a lot closer than the OP to my kids school, but my eldest started walking (with friends) last 1/2 term of yr 4, alone from the beginning of yr 5, and with his (yr 3) sister from beg of yr 6.

clairec79

Ours is in infants they have to see a parent in the yard before they let the kids out, juniors they don't (and a lot of junior parents wait down the bottom of the hill to pick their kids up

I think next year when ds1 will be in juniors they'll walk home alone (but will be told to wait for each other, dd1 will be year 6 and dd2 year 5) - we live on the same street as the school about 20 house away - by the time ds1 is in year 6 he'll then get picked up again as the youngest will be in school then

bylromarha

alwayspuzzled wrote: »

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.

Well done on finding a solution OP rather than trying to find the energy to fight the head on this one. Relax over this one now and enjoy the end of the pregnancy.

I think it's a silly rule too, however OFSTED are REALLY hot on safeguarding now, which I think means some heads have taken to cotton wooling kids where they don't need to.

School where I teach we release to a parent, up to Year 2. Yr 3 onwards the child goes alone. In the 80s I used to walk to and from school at age 6, 1 major road to cross with lollipop lady help. Road safety was taught every year and re-enacted in the playground throughout the year. No time for that sort of practical learning though in primary school anymore. Tufty, green cross code man...all adverts regularly on throughout kids TV in those days. Can't remember the last time I saw that hedgehog advert for road safety.

daska

GobbledyGook wrote: »

We should not be teaching our children to blindly follow rules if they have good reason to question them. If there is genuine cause for questioning a rule then we should be equipping our children with the skills to do so in a pleasant, polite and respectful manner.

Agree 100%, but I would add that we should teach our children to follow the rules before and during that questioning process and to continue to follow the rules if the questioning process doesn't bring about the desired change in the rules.

DS1 went to a 'new-fangled' type school for a few years where they actively tried to avoid anything more than the most fundamental rules such as 'we will always treat everyone with respect' and 'we will never hurt anyone'. Unfortunately that didn't easily translate into 'we will not ride our scooters in the playground and accidentally terrify the tinies'. A lot of the parents felt that having a specific rule about riding scooters in the playground was unnecessary because we already had a rule that we wouldn't hurt anyone - but a new rule was introduced and after that there were no scooters in the playground at any time, regardless of whether the tinies were there or not. Was that unreasonable? Possibly, possibly not. It certainly meant there was no leeway for 'misunderstandings'.

I'm not arguing that all rules are necessary/right/sensible but in life there are a lot of rules that we may not like but have to conform to such as paying tax, completing the census etc and school is the best place to learn that lesson.

Personally DSD was walking to/from school on her own at 5 (the idea of which I struggle with but her parents/grandparents assure me she was quite capable of) and DS1 at 10 which was late because he just couldn't get the hang of crossing roads safely.

GobbledyGook

daska wrote: »

Agree 100%, but I would add that we should teach our children to follow the rules before and during that questioning process and to continue to follow the rules if the questioning process doesn't bring about the desired change in the rules.

DS1 went to a 'new-fangled' type school for a few years where they actively tried to avoid anything more than the most fundamental rules such as 'we will always treat everyone with respect' and 'we will never hurt anyone'. Unfortunately that didn't easily translate into 'we will not ride our scooters in the playground and accidentally terrify the tinies'. A lot of the parents felt that having a specific rule about riding scooters in the playground was unnecessary because we already had a rule that we wouldn't hurt anyone - but a new rule was introduced and after that there were no scooters in the playground at any time, regardless of whether the tinies were there or not. Was that unreasonable? Possibly, possibly not. It certainly meant there was no leeway for 'misunderstandings'.

I'm not arguing that all rules are necessary/right/sensible but in life there are a lot of rules that we may not like but have to conform to such as paying tax, completing the census etc and school is the best place to learn that lesson.

Personally DSD was walking to/from school on her own at 5 (the idea of which I struggle with but her parents/grandparents assure me she was quite capable of) and DS1 at 10 which was late because he just couldn't get the hang of crossing roads safely.

The Scooter thing may have meant there was no misunderstandings, but how do we expect children to learn how to deal with situations if they are never allowed to sample them. The school should have used the scooters as a way of teaching the children about the dangers of bigger children on scooters around smaller children and given the children the responsibility of not putting the other children in danger. Fair enough ban scooters if scores of small children get hurt because bigger children pay no heed, but if we do not give children a chance to use their judgements how do they ever learn?

There is far too much dumbing down of children and wrapping them in cotton wool today imo. Wee Johnny is too immature and has no road sense so he cannot walk home alone therefore no-one is allowed too. Well we wouldn't allow schools to say "wee Johnny can only manage level 1 maths so that is all the children will be doing" when our children were capable of levels 3/4/5 so this is no different.

Your example of your DSD and DS is exactly what I mean. My Grandparents were the same. I was allowed to travel home from school myself aged 10 despite a long walk, a bus ride and another walk whereas my brother was hardly allowed out alone until he was in his teens because he was a nightmare - easily led, no road sense, was a dolly daydream, no sense of time or direction etc etc. My Grandparents knew that and dealt with us accordingly just as your family have with your DSD and DS. WE know our children better than the school and therefore it should be us and not a head teacher who doesn't know each child outwith the regimented atmosphere of a school, who does know know the route home etc who decides when out children are capable.