Teenagers being driven to and from school

Hithere

The world now is very different from the one we grew up decades ago

Throwing judgements on what parents do now vs what you did then is comparing apples and oranges

Yes I agree and for that reason I can totally understand why young children are no longer allowed to walk to and from school on their own.

But teenagers who live 15 to 20 minutes walk from their school, or on a direct bus or train route? Surely, unless their are specific circumstances such as bullying , they should be able to navigate their own way to and from their school.

Sallywally1

My son, now an adult (32) had to get a bus into the local town and then had a ten minute walk from the bus stop to the school. He and his friends witnessed several muggings, one boy was beaten up badly. I was always terrified of all the kids carrying knives and it is much worse now. We live in London.

That’s why so many are driven. Parents are scared for their safety.

This doesn't just apply to London and is the reason a lot of children are driven to school. In some rural areas, all the children are picked up by one bus. Whoo, betide you if you have passed for the local selective Grammar school and last on the bus. I have heard quite a lot of reports from friends about their grandchildren and their treatment by others who they thought were friends.

Whoa whoa, the murders of young women in London are usually after dark and not on London transport. Sarah Everard was around 9.30 pm I believe and the Smallman sisters were in the early hours of the morning.
A child in London is highly unlikely to be on the tube or bus after 5 pm anyway, because most of them try to avoid the sardine can rush hour. Added to that they rarely travel alone, more likely in groups of 4 or 6. Then at the weekend they travel to Oxford Street, a museum or art gallery or Stamford Bridge or West Ham for football. It becomes part of their lives to learn their way around and become streetwise, both on school days and for leisure.

Bog all chance of any help to get to school here, even in the most dire circumstances.

It’s a different world today. In a world where we read regularly of stabbings in London of mainly young men and boys and the murders of women such as Sarah Everard, the Smallman sisters and Ashling Murphy, who wants to risk that for their own child?

In Scotland parents do have a choice of schools, both primary and secondary. My children were able to walk to primary school and had bus passes for secondary school.

Of course, free bus passes are only of any use if you have public transport on which use them.

I just worry how all these cossetted children will manage once they get to university.

Even back in the 1960s when I went to university, we had students, especially girls, coming up who were so wet behind the ears because they had been so protected by their parents, who did things and got themselves into situations that made my hair stand on end. Having for various reasons had a peripatetic childhood, including my sister and I flying round the world, in the very nominal care of an air stewardess. I was streetwise and so many at university with me were clueless.

I can see my DGC and their friends who have had to walk to and from school, cross busy roads and walk sensibly, including from after school classes and in the dark, being at a real advantage over those who are fetched and carried all the time.

The odds are still loaded against women when out alone after dark

I get very frustrated when parents pull into disabled bays in a car park next to a school to wait for their 16-18 year olds. They do not pay for a ticket and when this is pointed out, they remark that they won’t be there long as they are just doing a pick up. This procedure is replicated by driving instructors prior to driving lessons. One was even running through a theory test ( you could see the book quite clearly) again with no parking ticket.

The world now is very different from the one we grew up decades ago

Throwing judgements on what parents do now vs what you did then is comparing apples and oranges

If we're out at that time (which we try to avoid) we do see lots of teenagers walking home from school and, for those out of catchment, it's quite a long way.

I used to walk to the bus stop, get a bus, get off, cross a main road and walk down a long road to school - and back - and I was 5 !!!

But too dangerous now of course.

Since the advent of schools being able to take children out of catchment, lots of the pupils are from out of area.

Both my DGC live about a mile and a half from their secondary school and have walked to and from, from day 1.

For their first day, as so many of her friends lived off the main road leading to the school, DGD organised a walking train. As furthest away, she started and was joined by about seven friends as she went.

If the weather is tipping with rain or snow, DS will give a lift or collect, if he is available, otherwise they walk it, rain, snow or shine.

It is a straight up a main arterial road into their city, so there are always people about and it is well lit.

DD walked to school for the last 2 years of primary school and throughout secondary school, but the schools were quite close. I could see her primary school from the front gate.

I’m gobsmacked by the amounts of parents waiting outside Secondary schools for great lumps of teenagers who; in the politest terms, look as if they might benefit from a walk.

I was fortunate enough to live within walking distance of my schools. Five minutes walk to the junior school, and just over 10 minutes to the secondary school.
We lived approximately one mile from the secondary school my children attended. It took them 20-25 minutes to walk. They walked. I only ever collected them in the car if we were going somewhere straight from school.

My DH had to find his own way across London to change trains to get to boarding school age 7.

Esspee

My OH took the bus to school by himself from age 5. He is 75. I was appalled when I heard that.
We walked in a group with “Grandpa Fraser” another child’s grandfather who used the walk to increase his daily exercise.

Esspee I think the further back you go in time the more independent children were. As I said, from the age of 5yrs I walked to school on my own in London in the 1950s. My father, back in the 1920s, lived in a cottage next to a wood and from the age of 5yrs walked alone through the wood for a mile and a half in all weathers to the village school. When I tell my grandchildren they can't believe it.

TizLiz I knew someone who did that.

I must admit driving my DD to school, chucking her out at school on my way to work.

We knew someone in a small remote town who lived 300 yds from the local school. “Nice short walk” I said (I walked 1 ½ miles to school). “ actually I drive them” she replied. Her children were 7 and 8, quite old enough to walk on their own if she didn’t want to walk. This was nearly 20 years ago.

My granddaughter is physically disabled and a wheelchair user. She’d love to get to school on the bus with her friends but it’s simply not an option. Due to the rubbish support system in place for her she relies totally on lifts from her parents.

Typos, sorry

Dont local authorities provide school transport free ?

*paddyann^ Here the pupils get a free bus pass if they're in the catchment area but have to use use public transport.
If they are out of the catchment area they have to pay.

Primary school pupils get school transport if they live a certain distance from the school. The daft thing is that, although the bus goes right past a housing estate on the other side of a busy main road from the school en route to a village, the children on the housing estate aren't allowed to use it because they don't live the required distance away. The parents offered to pay but no.
So it sails past their homes with about 3 children on it.

Hithere

Tight not tight

Bloody autocorrect Hithere ?

My OH took the bus to school by himself from age 5. He is 75. I was appalled when I heard that.
We walked in a group with “Grandpa Fraser” another child’s grandfather who used the walk to increase his daily exercise.

It isn't free in my local authority in England paddyann, they even charge some SEND pupils fr transport now

IIrc our school bus was £3k pa as it isn't subsidised

Dont local authorities provide school transport free ?

They always have done here .I left school in 1969 and never paid for my train pass to school 4 miles away .
None of my children or GC have had to pay for a school bus pass.From this month the free travel is being extended to take in up to 22 year olds ,thats ALL children from babies to 22 .

It will help Students with travel costs .young people on low wages and it will try to stem the numbers of old cars these young folk buy to get them around.
Win win,keeping old cars off the roads ,keeping the bus service busy and saving parents being taxi's
.Good for the environment
Bus passes for 60 year olds are still the norm and soon it will become more cost effective to provide free public transport for everyone as it did with prescriptions where the admin costs were higher than the cost of everyone getting their meds free.Bet you wish you had a government who think out of the box....or even THINK about anyone but themselves