Couple warned over allowing children to cycle to school alone

Oliver and Gillian Schonrock let their daughter, eight, and son, five, cycle a mile unsupervised from their home in Dulwich, south London, to Alleyn’s junior school. They believe cycling to school is good for their children’s independence and self-confidence. But other parents and the headmaster have said it is irresponsible. The children’s route takes them along a sidewalk beside roads busy with traffic on the school run. At about the halfway mark they cross a relatively busy road where a lollipop lady is on duty. On the return journey they are supervised by one of the parents or their nanny.

Mrs Schonrock said she was “confident that the benefits to our children far outweigh the potential risk from `stranger danger’, road traffic accidents and other factors.” Mark O’Donnell, headmaster of Alleyn’s junior school said that the school was under an obligation to consider the children’s safety. “If a school feels a child in their care is at risk, they have a legal responsibility to notify the local authority,” he said. “Is an eight-year-old responsible enough to come to school with a five-year-old and take responsibility when it comes to crossing busy roads? Or what would happen if the five-year-old has a tantrum?”

Last week the Schonrocks met the headmaster and said they were told that unless they supervised the journey in both directions they would be referred to children’s services. The couple said they did not blame the school so much as the rules on child protection. “The question is do the government have the right to put an obligation on schools to not allow any level of risk whatsoever?” asked Mrs Schonrock, who grew up in Kent and from the age of four took the bus to school with her six-year-old sister.

She said she and her husband had gradually exposed their children to taking greater responsibility and risks and the result was children who “we have been told are well adjusted, mature and independent for their respective ages.” Mr Schonrock, who walked alone to school as a boy in Germany, and cycled to swimming club from the age of six, said: “We wanted to recreate the simple freedom of our childhood. Like everybody else our age, we spent a lot more time with our friends playing in the streets or parks without parental supervision and without our parents becoming unduly worried.” He added: “These days children live such regimented lives. They can do nothing unless it’s planned beforehand.”