To be so frustrated with slack parents...(sunshine)

[ShabbyButNotChic]

Basically i work in a school club attached to a primary. It is bloody hot today (16c and glorious sunshine at 7.15am) and also school sports day today. The kids will be on the field all day, with only a break for lunch. Luckily the school has a few gazebo type things set up for shade. It is supposed to reach 28 degress here today.
I was talking to the kids this morning, and of the 16 children that were there (aged 7-11) not a single one had suncream on! Only 2 had brought their (school issued) sun hats, and 1 child had remembered their (school issued) water bottle.

Ffs sake! They are small kids who are having sports day on the hottest day of the year! Its not like parents could have missed this info as it has been forecast/was hot by 7am, AND school sent a letter last week reminding parents to prepare the kids before school, and a bloody text last night! It really winds me up, as we are going to be all over the situation now today, making sure they dont burn, provide them all drinks etc.

Cant decide if this is more annoying than the parents who send their kids to school in 2foot of snow in ballet pump style shoes.....just look out the window and dress your kids properly for gods sake!!

Rant over...

YANBU but the school are unreasonable to have them outside in hot sun all day long too.

Oops crossed post

Burberry, our friends live in Dubai and we looked around the school. It was sports day in June at 90 Degrees
l bet it was the British school....

Yanbu at all , but just as sports day would be cancelled for bad weather, it should be cancelled if weather is too hot, especially for littled ones!

Yanbu. When I was a head we bought in a job lot of extra sensitive sun cream and sent all parents a slip to return giving us permission to allow their child to apply it to themselves at breaks and lunch.
We actually had two children once who had been admitted to hospital with 3rd degree burns after a weekend of unprotected outdoor playing!

My dc's school did their annual walk up the mountain (a small mountain ) yesterday. All was fine. Hats/sunscreen/water obligatory. I don't think cancelling sports day because it is hot and sunny is acceptable.

The OP is completely reasonable however, people should prepare their children properly.

Why schools insist on having sports days at all is beyond me. If they must have them, they should take place in spring or autumn.

Yanbu. These are basic things. dd doesn't take sun cream as I put it on before school and her play times are only 20 minutes outside each time. Our school does sports day for younger ones in the morning so sun cream will still be fine, by juniors I'd expect her to be able to apply it herself without the teacher's help.

They are small kids who are having sports day on the hottest day of the year!

Perhaps the school needs to alter the day it's happening then..

I take your point in principle, but IMO the school are being negligent if a child does not have access to shade and fresh water at all times. A gazebo and those rubbish plastic water bottles ubiquitous to all schools don't cut it.

Access to shade and fresh water are a bare minimum even for animals in pounds!

You could wear the biggest sunhat and the strongest SPF and still go down with heatstroke, especially if you are intermittently participating in races with only a plastic bottle filled with less than half a litre of almost-instantly-luke-warm water to keep you and dehydration apart.

I rarely put sunblock on my DCs. Both of them hate the feel of it on their skin and one tends to react to it (even the hypoallergenic ones), a problem that gets worse the more it's applied. One hates wearing hats. Despite this, my DC have never been sunburned or suffered heatstroke, despite spending all day on the beach in many instances. This is because the ability to get out of the sun and hydration are far more important and effective.

TBH, although I do send my DC in with hats and apply suncream, I would expect the school to have factored in water supplies and adequate shade when risk assessing its sports day. My local primary has always managed it.

Is it the same parents, by any chance, who don't send a coat in the middle of winter or on damp days because they've been chauffeured from door-to-door?

I don't think that there should be any school events where DC are out in the sun all day - I have horrid memories of school sports day and fêtes where I felt ill from heat exhaustion. As an adult, I just don't do that to myself or my DC and have learned that it really is stupid to go out in the midday sun, ever.

So all of the kids were outside in the field with no shade from 9.30 - 3.30 apart from Lunch. That's terrible. Are they ok?

DS2's middle school had sports day all day today, kids from year 5 to year 8. They weren't allowed inside apart from lunch, there were no where near enough gazebo's for shade, no hats, weren't allowed inside to fill up water bottles, and weren't allowed in to use the toilets. Also there was nowhere to keep suncream. Not to mention an utterly disgraceful display of "first aid" that involved yanking a child with a torn thigh muscle to his feet by his wrists. Thankfully he finishes there soon....