Starting Secondary School
There is a photograph almost every parent takes at the start of September. A child in a blazer that is slightly too big, standing by the front door, bag on both shoulders, trying to look older than they feel. Starting secondary school is one of the biggest steps in childhood, and for most families it arrives with a strange mix of pride and quiet worry.
Much of that worry is not really about the school itself. It is about everything around the edges. The longer journey. The bus that has to be caught. The bigger site full of older pupils. And the stretches of the day when your child is genuinely out of reach, on a route you are not walking with them.
This is not a checklist built on fear. It is a short set of calm, practical foundations worth putting in place before the first morning, so the independence your child is about to gain feels like an adventure rather than a risk.
The journey there and back
For many children, starting secondary school means travelling further and, often, travelling alone for the first time. The NSPCC’s advice is that independence should be built at a child’s own pace, and that primary-aged children are usually too young to walk home from school alone. That makes the move to secondary the natural moment this changes.
Walk or ride the route together before term starts, ideally at the time of day they will actually be doing it. Use those trial runs to teach road safety and build their confidence managing risk, as the walking charity Living Streets suggests. Agree what happens if a bus is missed or a plan changes. Pick a couple of safe places along the way, a shop, a friend’s house, the school office, where they can stop if something feels wrong. The aim is not to script every step. It is to make sure the first unfamiliar situation is not also the first time they have ever thought about it.
The phone question
Starting secondary school and getting a first phone tend to arrive in the same conversation, which is one reason the first phone decision is one parents find so hard. Add to that the fact that, from September, schools across England are expected to be phone-free by default under the new statutory guidance, and the picture gets more complicated.
If you are worried about how your child will stay in touch, it is worth reading the government’s own guidance for parents, which is clear that a phone-free school day does not remove every risk and that good communication about phone use outside school still matters. Be clear with yourself about what the phone is, and is not, for. During the school day it will most likely be pouched, handed in or switched off, so it is not a way to reach your child in a lesson. Where it matters is the journey and the time either side. And even then, a phone is only useful while it has charge and is in your child’s hand. The most common gap we hear about is not a lost child. It is a flat phone at exactly the wrong moment.
What they actually know
Here is an uncomfortable exercise. Ask your child to tell you your phone number from memory. Most cannot, and that is not their fault. A generation raised on saved contacts has never needed to.
Before September, it is worth making sure they know a few things that do not depend on a charged, working phone: your number and one other trusted adult’s, their home address, and what to do if they need help and cannot reach you. The gap in children’s emergency skills is wider than most parents expect, and a few minutes of practice closes most of it.
A backup for when the phone cannot help
Even the most organised morning cannot guarantee a charged phone at half past three. Phones go flat, get lost in a new and much bigger building, or stay in a bag while a bus pulls away.
This is the exact situation My Home Call is built for. If your child’s own phone is flat, lost or out of reach, they can borrow any phone, a friend’s, a teacher’s, a stranger’s at the bus stop, open My Home Call and verify themselves with their biometrics. A pre-written message then goes to their saved contact with their location. There is nothing to memorise, nothing is left behind on the borrowed phone, and it works precisely when the device that was supposed to be their lifeline cannot.
The conversation, not the kit
It is tempting to answer the worry of starting secondary school by buying things. The more useful investment is a calm, ongoing conversation. Children cope with new independence best when they know they can call home without being in trouble, when they understand that plans changing is normal, and when they have practised the awkward what-ifs out loud rather than meeting them cold.
Your child is readier than the lump in your throat suggests. A short checklist, a couple of trial runs and a reliable way to reach home are usually all it takes to turn that first-morning photograph into the start of something they grow into.
About My Home Call
My Home Call is a UK-built biometric safety platform that lets a registered user reach their saved emergency contacts from any device, even when their own phone is flat, lost or stolen. There is nothing to remember and nothing left behind on the borrowed phone. Whether it is the walk home from school, a missed bus or a day out, there is always a way home. Download the free app or learn more at myhomecall.com.