Does your school have a suncream policy?

[RasberryJamAndScones]

I'm interested to hear if / what other Primary schools do about pupils wearing sun cream.

My kids school does not have any policy afaik. I've asked about it and they said teachers / staff will not apply it to children but can remind them to apply it themselves. They've said if we're concerned we should use factor 50 and send the child in in a hat.
However my son is often in for breakfast club so suncream applied by me at 7.30am will not be effective by lunchtime. And a hat doesn't protect his arms and legs. Also I don't think there's any way a five year old can be expected to apply it properly even if they are reminded.

Interested to know what do other schools do? Maybe some constructive ideas I could suggest to the headteacher?
Thanks

I have been a teacher for a very long time and I don’t personally know of any UK schools (not saying there aren’t any at all) where staff are still allowed to physically assist children with sun cream. You need to get him to keep practising, practising, practising at home to apply it himself.

Suncream is to be applied before school and sent in for reapplication. My Y4 reapplies it herself, not actually sure if the youngest in reception gets help or not. I send in the nivea roll on to make it easy for them. If your DC are particularly fair skinned (mine are not) you could always use a once a day e.g. p20 for the 7.30 application, I’d still get them to reapply it themselves at break but it’s just a bit less of a worry that way if they forget or do a questionable job.

Apply before school and send a roller application one for easy reapply but DS has to do it himself and has done since reception. He quickly got use to how to use it but I question effectiveness even now in Year 3. He's never come home burnt tho... I little red in the face but he wears a hat so just hot.

Lots of parents at DD's school use the "buddies" applicators.

We use a base layer of P20 before she goes out - that lasts up to 10 hours. Then DD1(7) has a solar buddy that she reapplies at school. She’s done this since first year of school. The solar buddies are really good for younger kids. My nursery-age daughter can use one too.

When my dc was little, they took roll on suncream. Not perfect but much easier for them to use independently.

These are really good.
We use them as adults too.

Back in the day I had to give written permission for DD1 y6 to apply to DD2 in yR.

Our preschool don't even reapply sun cream. They ask everyone to use all day suncream, and they ask the kids to reapply to faces, necks and arms after lunch. My very fair skinned kid has always been fine even on the hottest days.

I just get the all day stuff, it's more expensive but easier for me to know she's got it on in the morning and will be fine until pick up.

Factor 50 applied in a decent application in the morning should last all day - its not like on holiday when they are constantly in and out of the water washing it off. Children actually spend relatively little time outdoors at school - a 20 minute playtime in the morning, then however long after they've eaten their lunch (maybe half an hour) and a 20 minute afternoon play. Its omly actually just over an hour outside and broken up into small chunks.
Ive honestly never heard of a child burning at school despite having had factor 50 suncream applied all over and none of the kids i know reapply during the school day.

Its a different thing entirely when you are holiday on a beach and out in the sun for long periods of time and in and out of water.

At primary they should be able to put it on themselves. Buy one of those foam applicators and tell him to keep a hat on outside.

We apply before school - also attends breakfast club at 7.30 - and I send her in with a roll on suncream. Much easier.

I buy the Soltan 8 hour stuff and hope for the best. They haven't burnt yet!

Dd2 reacted to the all day which meant we couldn't use it.

They need to be taught how to apply from a young age, but if they aren’t capable you can get the 12 hour ones and ensure they have long sleeves and hat.

I put plenty of the boots 8 hour one on before school and then fill the sun buddy with the thinner normal boots kids suncream. We spent a lot of time practicing how to use it and although I’m sure he won’t do a perfect job he has managed to avoid any sunburn at school so far 🤞

When our children were younger, we always just applied the once a day ones in the morning and they never got sunburned.

I apply factor 50 to my kids before school and they don’t take any in with them -there’s no way they’d apply it properly (if at all!) and as a previous poster mentioned they actually spend very little time outside in total and have never got sunburn at school

My dd is in year 4 at primary and there policy is that they can’t bring sun cream in incase they share it with kids that are allergic. It’s mental

We line them all up before break/lunch and I will help spray/blob it on to strategic parts of skin so they can rub it in. Will remind them to do backs of necks, ears etc. I’ll demo rubbing my own face etc but they are all pretty good at it. That’s for 6 year olds but do the same with the younger class too

Apply it before school, DC can top up at lunch time. That should be enough unless they are out all day, which they won't be. Roll on or applicator if they struggle to apply themselves. My children have never got burnt at school.

When I first worked in schools (Early Years) I think we were still allowed to help with application, and then that changed to asking parents to apply before school and they could send in their own in a named bottle but had to put it on themselves.

DD’s school don’t allow them to take it in normally, just say please apply before school. However this week we’ve had a message saying still to apply before school but they can take their own in to reapply before lunch - must be the roll on or the stick.

I do a very generous factor 50 application in the morning (occasionally do a factor 30 all day one we have too - both have been fine). She wears her hat and is pretty good at keeping to the shade which fortunately they do have a fair bit of on their playground/ field so we’ve been ok so far. She’s very fair so I do worry.

We applied an all day factor 50, same stuff we used when we used to go to Florida in August.

Either P20 but that will ruin any white polo shirt, our preferred one was Ultrasun Sports Formula. To make sure they were completely covered they would just be in their underwear when we applied the sun cream.

My children also had legionnaire hats so their necks were protected. A lot of children had these.

They had to top themselves up at school and were really good about it but it was a different sun cream. One of my children is milk white, like a ghost. He has never burned once.

There is nothing constructive you can suggest - anything you suggest to the school is likely to be as constructive as the school suggesting to you that you come in to put suncream on your child if you are that bothered.

We’ve also never found an issue with factor 50 applied in the morning lasting all day. Our LB is quite fair too.