Blog: Would you let young children cycle to school alone?
Monday 5th July 2010, 7:30AM BST.
A couple who let their eight year old daughter and five year old son cycle a mile to school unsupervised have been warned by the school’s headmaster that they could be reported to social services.
Oliver and Gillian Schonrock let their daughter, eight, and son, five, cycle a mile unsupervised to lessons in Dulwich, south London.
The couple say they are making their children responsible, independent and self-confident.
But the school’s headteacher said he had a responsibility to consider their safety.
Here, Tracey O’Sullivan gives her opinion:
Cotton wool children. I believe that’s what the current generation of youngsters has been branded. They’re too wrapped up and protected to have any idea how to assess and deal with risk.
Now I agree with this. I do think we are over-protective. I do want my children to have some freedom. But sometimes a risk is a risk too far.
For me, as a parent, allowing an eight-year-old and a five-year to cycle to school alone is exactly that.
I understand the frustrations which can reach boiling point at over-zealous health and safety rules. And I don’t necessarily believe the Government should be interfering in a decision taken by parents who have considered the matter carefully.
But 
that’s not because I think Oliver and Gillian Schonrock are right. I don’t.
They may believe they are just recreating the freedom of their own childhood, but for me it’s just lazy parenting – handing over what should be a parental responsibility to an eight-year-old.
Let’s not forget there is a five year old sibling to be looked after on this mile-long route through south London. This is not play-time, where parents can consider ways in which they can allow their offspring to indulge a sense of adventure without responsibility or strict supervision.
And even should it be perfectly safe – and I don’t believe it is because although children of that age may have great road sense and stranger danger awareness, they are unpredictable and too young to maintain a sense of consequence – there is another crucial issue here.
The school run, particularly at primary school level, is not just about getting to school. When I do get to collect or drop-off my ten-year-old stepson I enjoy that time together – the conversations we have are funny, engaging and enlightening. These are the kind of chats vital for parenting that often get lost in the chaos that ensues once you are back home.
I know his father and I value the connections made at the school gate and the link it helps to forge with the school.
Noah is perfectly capable of getting to school on his own, involving a journey by bus, and has plenty of freedom at home where he is allowed to call on neighbouring friends alone.
But he still wants our company on the school run – a situation which we know won’t last much longer.
Why would you want to give up that precious time with children so young?
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These kids are too young to go unaccompanied.
However, this case has started an important discussion, which should make us all think hard about how much freedom kids should have and the need to make our roads safer for our children to exercise that freedom.
According to a Sustrans survey only 4% of British school children are cycling regularly to school.
But 50% want to.
This is in stark contrast to our Dutch neighbours.
In the Netherlands, there is an extensive bike network and a third of all journeys made by children under 16 are by bike.
Dutch kids are also the happiest children in Europe, perhaps as a result of the freedom they have to cycle safely, and the fact that this freedom makes them ‘responsible, independent and self-confident’.
It would be great to see more kids throwing off the cotton wool and government investing more in safe, well-maintained, extensive cycle routes.
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A number of issues here it is not safe , secondary age yes I think it is , 2nd issue perhaps if all schools were forced to open at an earlier time not 8,40 on the dot ie have breakfast clubs from 6-45am and stayed open late after school supervision until 7-30pm it may solve a lot of problems. Facts are here the UK is geared around both parents going to work the gouvernment encourages it so schools need to adapt to cater for it. It is all very complex small village schools now close and you are asked to put your child on a school bus and send them of to a new bigger so called better school all this from 4-1/2 –5 years of age is that right? I dont not think so . Schools do have a duty of care however the schools need to again modernise like many other sectors of the uk .
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Agree that there is no joined-up thinking here. Agree, government wants us all to work, so how are we supposed to be at home to collect kids from school at 3.30. The council by us has designated our road a ‘cycle route’. How? By putting up a sign which says ‘This is a cycle route’. There is no change to the road layout so that cars are not segregated from cyclists. There is no change to the speed limit so that cars still travel at 60 mph on the derestricted part of the road. The police do not enforce the 30mph speed limits where they are in place. So what chance is there for kids to cycle safely to school? Do not agree that schools have a duty of care – once they are inside the school gate, yes, but getting to school is the responsibility of the parents.
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So the parents will be reported if tey don’t send their children or school, or if they do send their children to school. Yes, that makes perfect sense.
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I don’t agree that schools opening from 6.45 – 7.30 would solve a lot of problems, it would make life easier for parents but it would create a lot of problems for kids and schools. If people really have so little time for their kids perhaps they should be thinking a little harder about having them and rethinking their priorities when they do have them. Kids are suffering from being over adulted these days as institutions have a different set of values to parents – they cannot allow children to behave ‘naturally’ and so maintain a level of discipline and a style of intervention which whilst good is not healthy all the time. Kids need to be relaxed, at ease and themselves and they need the day by day interaction with parents not just ‘quality time’ and play dates.More proper family time to do things and be together is whats needed even if some material and financial reduction has to take place.
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Agree with much of what gill says however we have to be realistic here. To live in some areas of the uk and how much you earn depends on a lot and how you live your life we have always had one parent at home for pick up or meet . Another example Private education for day pupils do not have this 8-40—-3-15 dileman do they?.
I would also add the duty of care issue is an odd one I believe they have a duty of care howeveronce they board a school bus and once on it duty of care passes on , so how can they have a duty of care for children making their own way to school by other means???.
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The school involved in this matter is independent, so the government couldn’t force them to change their opening time as you suggest. In any event, 6.45 is far too early to be sending small children to school. Schools are there to teach, not act as surrogates to lazy parents.
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Anon clearly you are a little confused how can a parent taking a child to school for 6-45 and then carry on to walk be lazy?. yes schools are there to taech so teach longer hours as in private education.
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How very irresponsible are these parents, not only are they too young too be travelling to school on their own but they are also handing their responsibility for parenting to their 8 year old for that journey to school. What if the 5 year old had an accident, how would the older child feel… The parent/s should be taking both their kids to school. Im all for kids having more sense of responsibility and to be self sufficient but this is taking it a step too far, my oldest son is 9 and a half, and there is no way would I let him go to school on his own yet. Yes I trust him to go there, but its others that may be about. My son would also have to cross three roads, all with traffic lights but not all cars stop at a red light. I would rather wrap my son in cotton wool and him be safe than to let him go on his own and something happen, I know eventually I have to let him go on his own but certainly not during his time at junior school.
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of course it’s irresponsible of the parents, they should take the kids to school by car after all it’s not safe for kids to get there any other way because of all the cars clogging up the school gates
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A word of caution: don’t judge people’s choices without knowing ther whole story.
Huw, the figure I saw for kids wanting to cycle was more like 75%. Both my kids cycle to school some days and are the envy of many of their classmates. In the interest of avoiding a stand-off with Social Services I’ll state now that they do not ride unaccompanied. Their mother doesn’t have a job so is considered a lower life form than the working mothers who sacrifice themselves for the greater good (joke), juggling work & family… and not giving 100% to either role.
Lots of children would love to cycle to school but hurried parents selfishly cling to their 4x4s and lumbering estate cars, parking inconsiderately and generally making the roads around the school more dangerous for everyone else. Parents and government avert their eyes from the research that shows they concentrate better in class and are less disruptive.
There is a clear correllation between the number of children cycling and obesity. The countries where cycling is widespread show the lowest obesity rates. The UK is the fattest and poorest performing country in Europe.
It doesn’t help that the UK has the poorest infrastructure and probably the most aggressive, impatient drivers, which conspire to deter all but the most determined from cycling. Don’t believe me? Then ride a bike each day and you’ll soon find out the hard way.
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Simon is spot on here as he said you are looked at like a beast with two heads if one partner stays at home to take care of the children and take them to school etc . You are also seen as odd should god forbid you walk or cycle any where. If the wife had a quid for every large rear ended female at the school gate or day nursury who said havent you got a car?? why have you walked??? or cycled????. However I do think the children in the article are a little young.
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Ha,ha, in your first sentence you say don’t judge without knowing the circumstances, then go on to pour scorn on working mothers, saying they can’t give 100% to either role. Not sure how you can make this generalisation without knowing people’s circumstances. Hypocrite.
And think yourself lucky your family can afford the luxury of only needing one parent at work. Not everyone is so lucky in this day and age.
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work harder then only one parent needs to work ha ha
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What kind of society do we live in where these children are in danger from cycling to school?
Forget the paedo-paranoid media stories. The real danger to our kids is the person behind the wheel, not some roving perv.
These parents are great. If something happens to their kids it is not their fault, it is the car-drivers. The car has become a motorised tyrant: It is the car and those behind it whom are the true child-abusers.
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I don’t feel this is an argument about cycling to school versus being driven to school. I also feel that the correllation between obesity and cycling is not relevant. Of course cycling or walking to school is incredibly healthy for children.I also feel that it is the best way to get to school.
I believe this is an argument about whether you should allow a five year old out on their own with just an eight year old to look after them. If you leave a child on their in in your house and they have an accident or something else happens to them, then you will get prosecuted – and rightly so. Most parents wouldn’t leave a five year old in the house on their own so I don’t see how letting a five year old go to school on their own is any different. I don’t need to know the whole story to believe that it is negligent to expect an eight year old to look after a five year old. I also believe that no five year old is truly able to assess risk properly – that is a matter of basic child development. If the headmaster felt the children were at risk then he had a duty to report it.
The person above has written that we should not judge other people’s choices without the full story. I generally agree with this. However the line quoted below is also judging other people’s choices without the full story
“hurried parents selfishly cling to their 4×4s and lumbering estate cars, parking inconsiderately”
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I totally support these parents who realise that the danger that exists on the streets now is no more than it was 30/40 years ago when many parents had liberties that they are afraid to bestow onto their children. Don’t these parents feel slightly hypocritical about this? They, I am sure will point to the cases that are ever publicised in the media but they should realise that although their feelings real and should be acknowledged they are not entirely rational compared to the home office statistics which prove that children are in no more danger than they were many years ago.
I work professionally as a primary school teacher. I see at firsthand children who suffer from obesity. Many of them are not getting enough exercise. They are driven to school even when their school is a matter of meters away from home! After school they are collected again by car and when they get home they are plonked in front of one screen or another. As a result of this we have introduced the WOW scheme in my school. This scheme promotes the idea of walking to school and rewards those who walk with a ‘WOW’ badge at the end of the month.
We have to be very careful about the society that we are inversely creating. We must strive to tackle social ills and not shy away from them. If it is too dangerous for children to cycle in this day and age we should ask the question pertaining to why this so and endeavour to solve this problem. What appears to be happening nowadays is people move away from problem areas or alternately they invest in security measures that imprison themselves in their own community. I refer her to gated communities with security guards, bars on doors and window etc. Is this the future that you would want for your children?
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when i read you’d introduced WOW my immediate thought was that’s not very good a school introducing world of warcraft….
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When I was at primary school come September we would go back after the summer holidays and then ache loads in the first week due to the hard excercises we had to do in the gym.
We did have a proper day at school then not finishing until 4 0′ clock like many of the private schools.
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try 6pm
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May I suggest that the people who need reporting to social services (or whatever the equivalent is) are adults who selfishly drive everywhere when there is (or used to be until buses were taken off) adequate alternative transport. If our children aren’t run over and don’t succumb to air pollution or obesity they will have their lives curtailed by the great extinction (see The Age of Stupid).
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Ignoring the perverts who might prey on these children, as they were still around in the “good old days”, but I do not think children that young are old enough or sufficeiently experienced or mature to cycle on the current roads.
I rode to school along the A5 (pre bypass) for 1 to 2 miles each way from the ages of 10 to 18 every day, rain or shine.
My choice not my parent’s.
I saw 1 friend killed when I was 12, albeit it was not the motorists fault.
That was almost 30 years ago
Our roads are busier, driving standards and consideration for other users are probably poorer, our roads – especially the edges/shoulders – are in a much poorer state.
I would love my children to ride to school when old enough but for now we walk the half mile rather than drive.
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bus, car whatd the difference ? bike or walk.
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It is a fact that the slower you go on a bike the more unstable it becomes therefore more dangerous to the rider and other road users. How fast can a 5 year old travel and can we reasonably expect a child of that age to have sufficient road sense to cope with traffic conditions today?. 2 Cyclists died in Telford yesterday would the parents concerned like their child to be the next statistic?. No, I thought not, so keep them off the road and keep them safe. The lunatics are running the asylum.
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In the eyes of Social Work…This is neglectful, pure and simple. The parents are responsible for safeguarding their children’s welfare. How on earth can they do this when they are a mile away from home unsupervised?! As a parent, I could not carry on with my day not knowing whether my children had arrived at school safely or not. They are too young, plain and simple. Would you leave an 8 year old at home in charge of a 5 year old? I think not.
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A lot depends on circumstances. I walked alone to school from the age of 5, about a mile, once I’d learnt the way. However, that was when almost all kids walked or cycled to school so I was never out of the sight of other children or adults. I don’t believe my parents were at all neglectful, they let us walk alone when we were ready. My Mum taught us to cross the road safely as soon as we could walk the mile or so into town.
The one size fits all society is lamentable, where do we learn to be responsible for our own actions.
I find myself unable to make a judgement for lack of knowledge about this case.
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