School run in the fifties

How marvellous! Good luck to you and hope you enjoy the experience. My primary school was about 10 minutes from my home and we all walked together (it was a village and the school had at most 50+ kids at a time). When I passed the 11+ I had to go to Worcester, 10 miles away, so went on the bus (there was a change too!) and from the bus station we had a choice - the bus did continue to Birmingham past my school, but there was a 10 minute rest break for the driver, so we could wait on the bus, or do the 15 minutes wlk with our mates. It generally depended on the weather, but we really enjoyed the walk. I think it's really sad that primary school kids are piled into the family car and/or have to walk with mum or dad in tow, since I feel that they aren't learning independence.

I started school in 1951 and after the first few days I walked the 1 mile there and back by myself and going home for lunch. We lived beside an extremely busy main road that had no pedestrian crossings and I had to cross this road every time I ventured out. At seven I went to a school that was 1.5 miles from home and that meant that I had to cross another busy road, which included trams, adults didn't do school runs ... children went to school, often together.
If I could I would ban mothers in Chelsea tractors taking children to school. I live in the next street to a school and twice a day it is bedlam.

When I started school in September 1951 I lived in a small village with the school 1.5 miles away in a bigger village. Mother took me to register on the first day but thereafter we walked in a group up hill to school and downhill home twice daily because we went home for lunch. I remember that the first winter was particularly snowy so we wore wellies and trousers under our skirts, taking them off and putting on sandshoes in the cloakroom. As we had to set off at 8.30am and did not get out of school until 4.00pm half of our journeys were in the half dark.

Later we moved up to the bigger village, Mum went back to work and we had school dinners, so walking to school was a doddle, except that we (Sister & I ) took turns going home at lunchtime to feed/walk the dog. For some strange reason, at the Academy, which served the whole County, we went by service bus in the morning, with another long walk uphill to the school but had school buses at the school at 4.00pm. These buses were infamous for departing promptly, half empty at 4.05 so I often missed it and just walked home, over the Golf Course and through the woods.

Changed days indeed. I regularly collect 1 8yo or 2 (6 & 8) DGC from 2 different Primaries in 2 nearby (3 and 4 miles) towns. Children have to be handed over to parent/GP/carer at the door but both schools have banned cars from the surrounding area. I need to find a parking space further away say half a mile and walk/run to and round the school and back to the car, which I can manage but is too far for DH. I know that the schools are trying to encourage children to walk to school, which mine do when accompanied by a parent, but they make no allowance for the many Grandparents from miles away who regularly collect their DGC.

I started school in the mid 50s. We lived in Harlow New Town, and there they had cycle tracks ... and I walked along those.... completely on my own... to my infants school, The Downs.

I certainly came home for lunch... so as a not quite five year old, I would walk to and fro four times a day.

It was probably 20 minutes each way - for little legs !!

Lots of children stayed for School Dinner but I didn't. And when the price of School Dinners went up, my best friend's Mum paid my Mum to cook lunch for my best friend too.

Actually, reading this, I imagine a lot of young Mums will be appalled - but that was how it was way back then !

Primary school was at the end of our street- admittedly across a main road but we went by ourselves. Secondary was further and I was given a bike or allowed to use bus when the weather was too bad. I think over 3 miles gave you a bus pass or travel allowance. There were probably fewer primary age children with long journeys because there were more small village schools, some very small-1 teacher and a handful of children. No-one worried about how much these cost to run!

Anyway, I would say definitely investigate the possibility of a school bus, if use not bikes, with the little one on a seat behind you Fiftieschick . Three miles each way is quite far for a five year old, walking or cycling.
Of course, you will have cycle helmets I hope, although there was no such thing in the 1950s!

Getting back to the OP - just to say that there was no such thing as 'a school run' in the 1950s.
Children went to school with other children, rarely with a parent, and came home from school with other children (or by themselves).
Mums didn't have cars, and not all dads did either!

we had one 4x4 parent/driver who parked in a homeowners car port opposite the school "because they didn't want to walk". And most of them could fit their children very comfortably into an ordinary sized car that is more economical and easier to manoeuvre! I love a Sunday morning moan..... And breathe!

Carolebarrel they are also prone to flinging open their car doors without looking and knocking other children flying, driving off without looking and knocking other children down, extreme rudeness when asked politely not to block the road, parking across drives then telling residents 'you don't own the road' etc etc.
They are a selfish breed apart.
Bring in compulsory school buses for all!

We lived more than 3 miles from school infants, junior and secondary. We lived in Bath, very hilly.

I remember being taken to infants in a seat on the back of mums bike but walking home as it was impossible to bike back because of steepness of the return journey. As soon as I was too big it was walk, walk or walk to every school and it took forever, obviously in ' all weathers ' as for a school to close it took would have taken a tsunami or 2 foot of snow!! now it seems like any old excuse will do. . I can't think of any buses at either the infants /juniors but I do believe there was a couple of buses for secondary.

Oh hooray Jalima for your comments on the 4x4 mums! absolutely true! I work in a primary school, and it's those very mums that block the school gate for everyone else so that their little darlings don't have to walk anywhere. I rarely see a 4x4 driver who can actually drive it safely. Rant over. I was born in the 50's and walked alone or with a friend from infant school age. And I lived in Brixton, London, at the time. I wouldn't allow a child to go anywhere alone now.

From my very first day at 5 years old in 1959 I was put on the school bus at the end of my road for a minimum half hour journey to school. I made this journey as did all the other out of area children for the whole of my primary school. My mother had made sure I got to know some of the other local children in the few months before I started school. I would not have done that to my children at 5. It was a proper double decker bus. I do remember having sing songs on the way home and playing 'I spy', alphabet and number games to pass the time.

I remember a friend telling me that she went to live in the USA in the early 1970s; her children were young and she decided to walk with them to the shops. She said that no-one did that and they thought that she was very strange.
I don't think you can compare life in the UK with life in the US even in the 1950s.

I don't remember many children going home for dinner - and it was dinner in the 1950s! School dinners: meat, two veg and puddings. Certainly no-one took a packed lunch.

There is a primary school near us and I have seen a couple of mums escorting a crocodile of children walking to school, perhaps the mums take it in turns.

When DD was at infant school we asked for transport because it was such a long way, they sent a double decker bus for about six 4, 5 and 6 year olds, so one mum would go on the bus with them then walk back, just to make sure they were OK, and another would walk there in the afternoon and come back on the bus with them.

How old are the children ? And can they ride bikes ? Or is there a bus ? Could be fun.

We lived in Birmingham but as I attended a RC school over 3 miles away we were given plastic coins to use on the bus instead of money. My mother had a part time job so from the age of 6 I often took the bus by myself to school. There could be consequences. We had a poster at school from Cadbury showing how chocolate was made. One day I decided to make it at home. Mum came home to find that I had mixed milk, sugar and cocoa powder together and was waiting for it to set!!

My primary school was reasonably close, though there were side roads to cross, and a crossing attendant on the main road. I can't remember my mother taking me, though she must have done when I was very small. Home for lunch every day. Then Secondary school was reached by bus as it was 6 miles away. The main difference between then and now was that primary children almost always went to the nearest school.

My parents had a farm in our childhood, and living down a long country lane, a taxi used to collect all the children locally who were under the age of eight.

On reaching eight, whatever the weather, my two brothers and I used to cycle the two miles to our local village school.

From age 5 my mother would take me to school along with my older brother and sister, and generally collect us in the afternoons. This was in London and our school was about half a mile walk from home. When we moved out to Essex, although there was a nearby primary school, our parents wanted us to go to the local RC school which was three miles away. So from age 7 I walked about half a mile to the school bus pick up point, usually with friends who lived nearby, and then on the bus to school.
I cannot imagine a child of that age taking themselves to school these days.

Not the 50s.but I remember walking to grammar school in the very early 60s in a London 'peasouper' fog. Couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Didn't think to take the day off or go with an adult.

Seems so unlikely now.

I went to school in 1955 , my Gran used to take me to the bus stop and put me on the bus then my cousins met me at the other end . The school was around 5 miles away, after a few of years I did it on my own .
I will remember for ever somehow getting on the wrong bus and not knowing where I was . I sat there crying not knowing what to do but a man on the bus saw me and took me home .
Secondary school was also a bus ride away and a good walk at the other end .
I pick my Grandchildren up sometimes and they are let out of the classroom one at a time into the arms of waiting parents , not saying this is wrong but they seem so much less responsible than I was at the same age .

I went alone on the bus from the time I was 6 in 1955. Mum was suffering appalling morning sickness and had to stop coming with me because she was sick on the bus. She was able to come and collect me though and we walked home, about 2 miles.
It sounds as if parents have the same concerns in the US as in the UK Wendysue. Certainly far less independence for children of this generation. My GS is 6 and I cannot imagine him getting a bus on his own!

Well, yes, ladies, I'm in the U.S. so that may make a difference. Almost everyone I knew had a car even back then, unless they lived in a very urban area with lots of public transportation. Not all the mothers drove, but a lot of them did.

Still, I knew some kids who walked to school. But as someone else said, I wonder if walking would be the same today as it was then. What I mean, OP, is would you feel as safe about it? Here in the States, most people I know are much more reluctant about letting their kids walk places alone than they were when my kids were little - and way more reluctant than when I was a kid in the fifties. I don't know how that is in the UK, of course, or how it might in the town where you live, OP.

When I was 5/6 (1953) I used to walk about half a mile up a country lane to the bus stop, catch the bus and then cross the small town (about 10 minutes) to school. Then the reverse in the afternoon. I had a couple of pence bus fare in a small bag worn over my shoulder and across my body. I once missed the bus and had to wait an hour for the next one. A kind lady helped and I remember this as being the only time my mother met me off the bus. She must have been worried sick.

After that we moved to a village with a school at the bottom of the road and then for the last year of primary we moved back to my original school for one year to take the 11+ exam. We went by bus with a bus pass as it was about 4 miles away.

This continued throughout grammar school (I passed 11+!) and I only remember once having to walk because the buses couldn't get through the snow. 4 miles each way and the school was not closed even though many staff and pupils lived in villages out of the town. That must have been about 1959/1960.

I lived just under the 3 mile limit to qualify for subsidised fares. So it was bike winter and summer.
We never had a car, dad rode his bike the five miles to work and back.

I lived five minutes walk away from school when I started in 1956. My mum walked me to school and home again to begin with, but after Christmas I was allowed to go by myself. All the children in the neighbourhood did the same. Those from further away came on the school bus.