How did you get to school?

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I walked to infant school 3/4 mile and went on my own after the first day or two, the junior school was another 1/4 mile further down the road. To get to the first school I had to cross a very busy major road and two smaller ones, to reach the junior school I had two major roads and seven minor ones to cross. I won't let GDs cross my street without holding my hand.

Walked.

Primary school was a short distance from our house.I crossed the road outside our street, them another road in front of the school.

Secondary school was about a mile and a half away. Involved crossing the road outside our street, then walking about a mile to get to a major road, crossing it, then walking the rest of the way having to cross a less busy road to the school.We moved house after two years, and my new secondary school involved walking about a mile then crossing one major road.

I can never remember either of my parents accompanying me.

Walked when at primary school. Secondary was two bus rides away, an hour each way, one bus into the city centre and another one out.

I lived 2 miles out of town where primary school was located. When it suited my father's working shift he took me to school on the bar of his bike with a cushion tied to it, all downhill. After school I walked home...uphill...alone. country road, aged 5 - 10 years.

We then moved into town.

Primary school was just down the road, so no problem. But Grammar School was on the other side of town and I had to walk. It was never an option to hop on a bus. But eventually I pursuaded Mum to buy me a bike and that was wonderful! However, I did have a couple of accidents including a memorable one where I was stung by a wasp which caused me to brake suddenly and fly over the handlbars in a very undignified manner..... and it was on the day I was due to sit my English O level!
(they let me take it a few days later in a room on my own).

Infants and juniors, we walked must have been close on a mile to school.
When I got to grammar school, a school bus picked up at the top of the village for the half hour journey to school, and back at teatime, but we had to show our passes to get on the bus. If we missed the bus for any reason, even with our passes we had to pay the fare on the regular bus. When I was nearly 13 I left home to live with my grandma on the other side of the Pennines. Getting to school then was local bus into town, then a goodish walk to school, must have been close to a mile, and all uphill, all the time watching out for teachers and prefects if we weren`t wearing our hats, the penalty being to wear it all day in school.

Walked until Senior school than cycled

Walked and, later on, cycled. For which I am truly grateful. It was through the countryside and I remember the early morning frost on the spider webs, and the icy ruts I used to charge over at breakneck pace.

Hop skip and a jump to infant school, unaccompanied, over what was considered a busy road for those days.
Junior school was maybe ten minutes there, it took us twenty - and half an hour back after a visit to the sweet shop for whatever was flavour of the month.
Senior school was a bus ride away, very useful for finishing homework as others have said.
janerowena my friend and I both have painful sloping left shoulders. The result of carrying our satchels? No other reason that we can think of.

Oh although I feel really bad now, we used to spend our dinner money on boiled ham and cheese and sweets and go and sit in the cemetery then wander off to school..

rubylady lol lol sounds a bit like me......... used to walk to junior school, bus n walk to senior (that's when I decided I would go ) when we used to do cross country running (we always sneaked off on route, nipped to mine had a jam butty and re joined at school) we even used to slap our cheeks and wet the front of our hair to make it look like we had been running lol got away with it for so long until someone snitched hates senior school..blaaaaaaa..

JaneA - I well remember the freezing soggy shoes. And chilblains like bruises, not only on my toes but all the way up to my knees! Girls now don't realise how lucky they are being able to wear trousers.

Also trying to transport a rice pudding plus homework books and bag of PE kit home on two buses - and failing miserably - balancing the pudding in the top of my satchel seemed like a good idea at the time. All my school books were stuck together and my nice satchel was never the same again! I think my mother, who never criticised teachers did write a letter on that occasion.

Walk to both infant and junior schools - about half an hour and with friends, not adults. Walk, two buses and cross the main road to secondary school except in the bus strike when it was a good hour's walk. Often, we couldn't get on the second bus as it was full so we had to walk or we would be late.
Sometimes, we would walk and spend our bus fare in the sweet shop - often a frozen Jubbly, a gobstopper or farthing chews.
Depending on the school year, the school bag might be a satchel, a duffel bag or a gondoler wicker basket full of books.

Two mile walk to primary, met friends in park and played on the swings, then ran hell for leather when the nine o'clock hooter sounded, getting to school 10 mins late and making various excuses. No punishment. At secondary school I used to cycle. Had to be there at 8.45. If we were late the nuns would always punish us, usually detention where we had to learn a poem in French - this was a French order. I can boast a good repertoire in French poetry ! Initially I had to cycle home and back at lunch time, so had plenty of exercise, until the sisters allowed us to bring sandwiches, most of us carrying these in oxo boxes. Their little earner with cooked lunches gradually diminished and I believe in the end stopped completely.
I loved my journey by bike and enjoyed the safe ride to and from school.

I walked too, but didn't any of you have little boys who jumped out from behind hedges trying to kiss you during the primary years, scaring the hell out of you? Followed by secondary school encounters with first, a milkman who used to flash at you every morning so that you had to walk miles out of your way to avoid him, only to attract a pervy taxi driver (who I knew by sight as he used to bring my father back from the station) instead which resulted in you threatening to throw yourself out of his car? One of my sisters was assaulted as she crossed a park to get to her school.

I had half hour walks from the age of five, and yes, they kept me very fit and yes, sometimes they were beautiful walks. But those encounters are what stay in my mind, and so my own DCs weren't allowed to walk anywhere on their own until they were nine. If they weren't back on time, I went looking for them.

Soaked shoes, wet and numb legs, dripping hair, heavy school and games bags. Even worse on piano lesson days, the books were huge sometimes. Add cookery to the mix and I really don't know how I managed it. As I got frozen shoulder twenty years ago, maybe I didn't!

Until I was eight we lived in Norwich and my mother walked me to school. It was her opportunity to have a chat with the other mums, walk the dog and do a bit of shopping on the way back - taking a dog into the butchers or green grocers never seemed a problem. Then we moved out into the sticks (now nearly a suburb) and I walked the two miles to and from primary school (no footpath) joining up with friends, stopping off at the rec to play on the swings. Days seemed much longer then!

Secondary school was a half mile walk, then a short bus ride to catch a connecting bus. Both were public transport so if the connecting bus had gone to soon it meant a three mile walk to school. The next bus wasn't til lunchtime.

It amazes me remembering how much independence we were given and being an only child I'd thought I had restrictive parents. If today's children had the freedom/responsibility how would Social Services ever cope!

It is definitely a different world! But what is clear from these posts is that we hot lots of exercise. It is shame that it is no longer deemed safe for children to walk to school.

Do remember a couple of years ago a couple who were reported to SSD for allowing their children to walk to school on their own?

Cycled to school, primary about 2 miles and girls-only grammar school 5 miles. Occasionally my father was going along the cycle track at the same time on his Power-pack assisted bike (remember those?) and would put a hand on my back to push me along, but I preferred him not to be around as there was a often trio of boys, on their way to the nearby boys' grammar, whom my friends and I worshipped from afar!
I would be worried about my GCs cycling on today's roads, it is a different world!

Primary school was just round the corner. Secondary school was a mile and a half bike or walk. DH had a mile walk, seven mile train ride, quarter mile walk. And the train riders got house demerits if they were late. Even on the day the train derailed. Happy Days!

Lived in same street as junior school , seven houses then the school

Infants and half of primary school was in London and I walked with my cousin who lived upstairs (in the same 3 bed terrace house) about half a mile along a very busy road to school- back at lunchtime (called dinner). we moved to Clacton and the walk was longer about a mile which I di four times a day on my own- there was never any suggestion that I should be taken by parents. Grammar school I biked the three miles there and back in the first year but it was not the done thing (most people got dropped of in cars or on the school bus) so I walked sometimes with other girls. After school most days was sport of some kind so I walked back home alone across a park sometimes in the dark.

This is sounding a bit like the Three Yorkshiremen Sketch that the Pythons used to do, "shoes, you ad shoes? you were lucky!" Etc.[ grin]
however, it does show how times change doesn't it, I had to walk to school alone as well, about a mile and a half, though it seemed longer at the time when you are only about six years old.I returned home the same way, although I do remember some Mothers meeting their children at the school gate and wishing my Mother was there, But I knew she worked until 5 pm, so not only did I go home on my own but was home alone for several hours afterwards, even in the depths of Winter, and with no fire!
When I was 11 I then had a walk, two bus journeys and another walk to do each way.