I walked myself to childminders in the morn and to hers from school in y5, got a key in y6 to walk to/from home. In a pretty busy town with lots of traffic and a good 10/15 min walk.. depends how sensibleyour dc is!

I do have DTSs. They walked from about Y5. You can build it up 100m at a time. Let them walk up the school path alone, then from halfway through the park, then just cross them over the busy road.All DC are different, just experiment and see how it goes.

It's not allowed before year 6 at dds school. Before year 6 children have to be supervised in the playground by an adult until it's time to go in, and handed back to an adult at home time. Outskirts of a city.

This year, in 5th class (equivalent of Y5 I think), DD is allowed to walk/cycle to school alone and home again on certain regular days (childcare is in a heap so we do different things different days). School is in the suburbs, a 10 minute walk (pitch is over the wall but she must walk around to front gate) - from housing estate on to main road and back into school with only internal roads in the estate to cross.

Last year, she was cycling most days, and I was going to meet her at the afterschool club in school, but she was cycling home alone (previously she'd been collected by me). We started that she could get out from school on the pedestrian path to main road, wait to see me in the car coming and then go again, I'd stop just in the estate to see her come off the main road, and then she'd come the rest herself. And over the course of a good few weeks, she was able to keep going and not wait for me.

There are a few in her class who have been letting themselves out of their house, walking/cycling a lot farther to school, and home again at the end of the day unlocking the house themselves - for the past 2 years in some cases. We only let DD open up the house in the evenings, one of us leaves with her in the mornings still.

But she is loving the independence and it was the one thing that tore her apart when deciding to leave the afterschool club in the school itself - not being able to go home every evening - even though she was leaving due to serious bullying going on towards her.

Ha ha yes we need to consider a possible fallout, maybe come up with a plan just in case.

Thanks all so much, looks like from next week they can give it a go - might drive up in the car and park where they can't see me just to make sure they're ok. Then that'll give us both confidence they can do it going forward. Thanks again

We built up to it by walking with her, or DH cycling with her, up to letting her off some days on her own, to now where she is happy to do it completely on her own. But yes, it was a case of letting out the reins slowly so that we were confident she was safe on the roads etc, and that she was also confident that she could do it (and what to do if there were any problems).

Letting her know the backup plans if something goes wrong is important too - whether that's to go back into school or to home, grab another parent walking, go into a house on the route or whatever.

And DH was also much happier to let her off alone once she had a mobile - a basic one but that she can call either of us if there's a problem.

Only a few kids walk home from our nice middle class catholic school in a small commuter town. DD1 is almost 10, and I've just started letting her walk down the road to meet me at DD3s pre school because otherwise it's a huge rush to pick up DD1 and get to DD3 in time. It's about a 7 minute walk. There is one residential road to cross but loads of kids from the school walk that way with their parents so I told her to walk with a friend. The first week I arranged for her to walk part way with a friend's mum and she crossed the road with her and then just had a straight 5 minutes down a road to get to me.

Yr 6 she will get a phone about halfway through the yr for her 11th birthday and then she can walk the whole way home, 15-20 mins, residential roads, 2 to cross in total.

By the way I'd be far happier about Dd1 crossing the 2 residential roads to get home if it wasn't at school run time.... At school run time the cars are parked all along the roads and are pulling in and out and many cars.... She is sensible though and I think most drivers are parents who are fairly aware of the risk of kids crossing between parked cars. Hopefully.

A lot of kids here started in P2! DS1 started at aged 7.5 although we're in the unique position that we live opposite the school, it's s sleepy village and to cross the road is a crossing with traffic lights and a lollipop lady. I can see his classroom from upstairs and hear the school bell regularly throughout the day as we're so close! If we lived further away it would probably be from age 9/10.

I live in a large busy city. Dd1 is at primary school and it seems that pretty much all children still get walked to school. There are a few p7's (age 11/12)that walk themselves but only the ones that are very close.

So to me the age would depend on- how busy is the road (continuous flow of traffic v occasional cars)- speed limit on the road- is there a designated crossing point such as zebra crossing- are there others crossing at the same time

y5 is not a bad age, maybe once the clocks have shifted and the weather is a bit better. But if the road is awkward I would maybe go with them as far as the road and then let them go on from there?

My DS school is from year 4 onwards. My DS is almost 9 (yr4) and walks halfway to school with a friend in the morning (we can see him from where we leave him) and are considering to let him start doing some of the walk home himself (with a friend) from spring/summer time. We love I'm the country, and his school is situated in the middle of a housing estate so no busy roads. There are also two other schools on the same walk so perfectly safe place to walk home in our opinion. We wouldn't let him go alone for a few more years yet though. Always with a friend.