When is a child old enough to walk to and from school alone?
If you have this question about your child, the following advice might help. We have put together information from children's charity the NSPCC as well as the experiences of some parents to help you decide if your young one is ready to go to school by themselves.
According to the NSPCC website, there’s no legal age that your child can travel home from school alone. It says: "This is up to you and your best judgement, or your school’s rules and policies. However, you should never leave a child alone who isn’t ready or is unable to care for themselves. Every child is different – but some schools advise children under 8 shouldn't walk home without an adult or older sibling."
Read More: When a child can travel without a car seat - here's what the law says
The charity goes on to say that if you and your child do feel they’re ready to come home alone, it helps to go over some rules about staying safe. These include:
- Make sure they know their address and your telephone number by heart, in case they get lost or have to navigate home from somewhere new.
- If they have a mobile phone, remind them to fully charge it before leaving the house, and make sure they have all your contact numbers saved.
- Talk to them about road safety. They should always look both ways before crossing the street, and never be on their phone whilst crossing a road.
- Remind them never to accept a lift from someone they don’t know, or let a stranger into the house. They should never give personal information away – in real life or online.
- Remind them that if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable at any time, they can call you or a trusted adult.
- If they ever feel like they’re in immediate danger, they should call the police straight away on 999.
The question about the right age to let your children walk to school alone pops up on social media channels quite often. It's a debate that people periodically have on Facebook groups and parenting sites.
Mumsnet has also had threads about this matter. In one discussion, parents talked about the things to bear in mind, including how many roads the child would have to cross. Others talked about their own experiences and what age or year their children started to walk to school alone.
One said: "Summer term year 5 is common where we are. Certainly all the year 6 like to walk with friends." Another wrote: "Year 5, I don’t think many schools would let them walk alone before this. It’s common from year 5 in my DC’s (dear child's) school and virtually zero year 6’s travel home with parents.
"My dear daughters are year 5 and 6 and walk home alone, have done since September. It’s a 1.7 mile walk with one main road but since it’s a small town, it’s not really busy."
Another added: "Although my daughter is at the age to be able to, I still don’t let her. Just not worth the risk, I’m going to give it another year or so. She’s 9."
One mum commented: "Ours are allowed to walk home from Y5. Mine were allowed to walk to school by me from summer Y4, as it's 200 yards down the same road from our house. Youngest is now Y4 and has walked to school a couple of times on her own as she's old for her year and is super sensible."
While another said: "Age 10 my son started to go to school and his basketball practice alone."
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