To be fuming that dd has sunstroke and both dd`s are sunburnt after school sports !

[fakeblonde]

DD 2 is 12 and it was her first sports day.
She is obviously sufferring from sunstroke and had to miss a music concert shes been practising for for months. Ive had to give her rehydrate and paracetamol.
She only came in for lunch all day.
dd2 is 15 and whie she hasnt got sunstroke because she know to drink gallons she is burnt !
I have always been proud that despite dd1 living on a boat and sailing around the world fgs from 4-12 she never once got burnt.Yet i send her to school and she is raw.
Apparently they went to sit under the tree and were told to come back onto the center field.There was no shade and no fluids readily available.
I know i should have smothered them in sun block, but i didn`t realise at 7am that it was going to be 27 degrees and they would be on the sports field from 9 30 until 3.

I don't think sunblock in the morning really works for the whole day. Even the highest factors always say re-apply every hour. Also I am not that happy about slathering chemicals all over young skin. SHADE is the obvious, low-tech solution. Teachers cannot be expected to rub cream on a whole class of children, and cannot force older ones to do it themselves. But they can and should insist that children seek shade when possible.

Many schools and play grounds are sadly lacking in natural shade, but for sports day, if the kids are out for the whole day, parents would surely help out with loans of parasols, gazebos etc.

I am told that in Australia it is enshrined in law that all playgrounds should have at least a third of the area in shade. I think this should also apply to places like Legoland. (pet hate of mine that there is very little seating, and almost all of it in full sun. They have put a bit of shade on some of the queues now, but not enough)

On our school sports day (secondary) it says in the letter to bring;
suncream
hat
clothes to cover up with
rainwear

depending on weathr. It also says to bring plenty of fluids although there are some available to buy and a drinking fountain.

11 year olds manage to apply suncream with no problem..............form tutors remind them.

Not much shade available in an open field for us. Staff have to police kids, we never get chance to go into shade.......

For gawds sake.

This is why some schools are deciding that even holding a sports day is too much trouble from a health and safety point of view.

It was on the local news recently that a school cancelled their day because of the "risk of sunburn". It was 15 deg and overcast fgs !

Just because school are in loco parentis does not mean your parental responsibilty is not required.

Before I read your whole thread I thought you were going to say your kids were 4 or thereabouts.

YABU.

12 is still a child, your sister is totally to blame for her son's sunburn. Children are still children at the end of the day. They are not adults and thus should not be expected to be fully responsible for their own welfare. When my children are 12/15, I will still be their mum, and still consider them to be my responsibility. I will also still expect the school to care for them while they are there. OK, they don't have to wipe their bums, but they do have responsibility for their well-being while they are in school.

Yeah you are being unreasonable I think. Let them have their own suncream in their schoolbag surely.

YANBU. The burn your DC was suffering should have been spotted by someone, to suffer sunstroke is horrendous.

Maybe pov depends on how prone to burning people are. I once went to a beer garden with my work colleagues for 5 mins at midday, then said I'm burning and went in. They were shocked at how quickly I burnt.

At a BBQ the other day I ended up with DD in a paddling pool, with her nappy and trousers off. Which was great, until I realised I hadn't put cream on her bum and thighs, and of course I couldn't now they were wet.

Another mum started a conversation about how we didn't need cream back in the day and never got burned. DD has v pale skin and blonde hair and protesting mother was asian. I was a bit .

Teachers surely should be on the alert for children who have stonking red burned skin? Hopefully before it gets like that? And to keep them out all day in the sun is just not on.

Going on now... But I met a friend today (italian) and she said "oh it's so hot you obviously didn't realise you have a long sleeved top on". I said that I wore long sleeved top becaue I didn't want to burn.

Sometimes people forget how tender some skin is, I think it's unforgivable of a school to force a child to stand in the full sun all day, and not even spot that they were a nasty shade of hot pink.

Do you not send your daughter in with a first aid kit.
I have since dd started sec school. its a small make up bag, which lives in the bottom of her bag.
In it is, wet wipes, chewable (no water needed) headache tablets, plasters, sanitry protection, roll on deodarant, face wipes and a small packet of sunblock wipes. It sounds a lot but its a lot less space than a pencil case.
I figure if she can travel into the city centre to go to school and she has the equipment to look after herself in her bag, then its up to her to prevent her own skin cancer. Especially as her Great Nan spent the last three years of her life with half a nose as the other half had been eaten by skin cancer.

Actually, It wouldn't supreise me if it turned out that I provided suntan lotion and wet wipes to her whole class.

You, or they should have made sure they had suncream on BEFORE they left the house.
The school was unreasonable keeping them out in the sun all day.
STAY OUT OF THE SUN between 11 and 3 is the advice. Not sit in it cooking.
Your dds were right to go sit in the shade.
Whoever told them to return to get burnt is an idiot.

YANBU, I think the school should see that for anyone sitting in that heat for all that time, whether they had suncream and hats or not, without shade is intolerable.
Heatstroke can happen with suncream and a hat on, anyone knows that. The school should have provided shade- they can read the weather forecast as well as anyone else. It sounds very poorly managed.and I would write to the school.
Did any of the other kids suffer like your daughter?

YABU.
At 12 and 15 they should know the dangers of the sun.
Surely you knew it was sports day?

DD's sports day was yesterday too, she is seven.
She made sure she asked me to put cream on her before she went and I took it with me when I watched her to put more on.

I think her school had better provisions as there was a 'drinks stop' after every couple of activities but we were explicitly told to send them in with suncream a hat and a bottle of water.

The only people that got burnt were the parents watching.

Sunscreen would obviously have been a good idea, but the school is at fault here for not allowing children to go into the shade. Teacher who dragged them back from the tree was highly irresponsible.

'Teachers should be on the alert for red haired, pale skinned children'

School I work in has 1300 children in it, do we spot check? If the Parents (who one assumes will have noticed what colour skin their kids have) haven't sussed that they will burn, how do you think the school teachers can do it, while running the sports day?

These are teenagers who should also have some common sense

kids go to school unprepared by parents and the school get a bollocking

i'm with you mb. They are secondary students and surely are capable of managing their own fluids and their own sunscreen.

My dds are almost 6 and 3 and if I forget they soon remind me about putting sunscreen on. If by 12 and 15 they have not worked out to do it for themselves I would shocked.

But I'm sure your school is too sensible to force them to sit in full sun all day, MB. Sunscreen does not protect you from sunstroke. It's bloody irresponsible of the OP's kids' school to make them sit in full sun, let alone boot them out when they've sought shade.

yabu
two of mine had sports day last week, they are 7 and 5 and made they made damn sure that i put their suncream on them and took a small tube each with them
how can kids of 15 and 12 not know to do this

Totally unreasonable.
They are 12 and 15 fgs, and should know both to drink, apply sunlotion, keep hats on.

If you were dipsy enough to forget to supply these things, they should be old enough to know themselves.

We have cancelled sports day because of the heat.

Cue endless moaning 'Why did you do that, it isn't fair, I took a day off work......' etc etc.

Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

Just think about all the posts on MN complaining that the school are being lunch box nazis because they dare to write home telling the parents what should go into a healthy lunch box.

If the school had done as fizzbuzz's does and sent a letter home you can bet your boots someone would have bloody moaned anbout that 'How dare they think that I don't know how to look after mu child.

But that doesn't address the sunstroke issue.

I think the school should have provided enough for the children to drink, but agree with others that you should have put sunblock, it may not have been that hot at 7am, but it is July and has been warm over the weekend.