40% of kids get sunburn during school hours

[NLucy]

The British Skin Foundation is running a campaign to help protect children from sun burn during school hours.

Play times are usually in the hottest hours of the day, and I know if we we could be there, we would be reapplying, making them wear sun hats and even keeping them out of the mid-day sun in the summer!

Signed.
As a teacher, I'd love for the whole situation to be clarified, so that unless a parent opted out, a teacher could help apply suncream. I'd also make sunhats compulsory.
But what to do? Especially with the ruling that EYFS need to be spending a huge amount of their time outside. Just the age where severe sun exposure can cause huge damage.

Great to know that some teachers are on board! I'd have no problem giving permission for teachers to help apply SPF - and once they are old enough, most can apply it to their face, neck and arms themselves with a bit of supervision! I think it should become part of the 'play time routine'. Compulsory sun hats is a brilliant idea!

I think schools should wise up about other methods too -encouraging (and providing!) children to be in the shade, having decent, compulsory sunhats (not just 'this one is navy and amtches the uniform' but a proper hat with good neck coverage and a wide brim), and the ability to slip on a long sleeved top too.

my children cannot use many commercially available suncreams due to sensitivities and allergies. I manage their exposure to the sun instead, and they have never been sunburnt in my care (and this includes holidays to Australia, for eg). UV clothing, decent sunhats, and avoiding spending time in the blazing sun are just as effective at preventing sunburn.

Is n't this a bit sensationalist. I wonder how many parents of those 40% had attempted to take basic precautions for their children such as providing a hat or suncream before school? Surely it is n't only the school's responsibility.

Also please include secondaries in this message. They aren't going to wear sun hats and sun cream, but simple bus shelter type structures to provide shade at lunch and during PE would be very useful.

DD says their teacher did let them do their discussion work under the hedge, but of course the sun moves and some times there is no shade.

DBI used to teach in Aus and it is really taken seriously there (slip slop slap) and the uniform is wide brimmed hats. Now I know it's slighty warmer it there but it can get quite burney over here too.

And sun team is a lot cheaper out there too.

You can't compare australia to the UK frontpaw. It's recommended here for children to actually spend time outdoors in the middle of the day, so they can get their summer dose of vitamin D. We were just told vitamin D deficiency is a major problem. Where in the UK has a burn time of 10min?

I'm from New Zealand, and I know how strong the sun is back home. I for one will not apply sun cream on my 1yo face when I go out. Not until it's proper summer, around june to august time. I can see DD's face isn't burned when I picked her up from nursery, despite spending all day outdoors. She's just looking quite brown from the sun.

We have a school field, and an active PTA. One of the drives they had a few years ago was for parents to donate sun umbrellas, the sort that usually go with tables?
We sunk metal pipes into the ground, and when the hot weather comes, out come all the umbrellas and lunch is a picnic in the shade.
I do agree that exposure to sunlight is vital in this country, so I'm not advocating keeping children inside or complete cover up, or SPF 1000.

One - it depends on skin type and people using common sense. I burn relatively easily, but my sister just needs to see a picture of the sun and she fries. We have had some bloody hot days here in London - not all that many, but some scorchers and I have seen kids skipping merrily in short sleeves and shirts, no hat, no neck cover.

I am all for enjoying the sun but I wouldn't put a child out in the midday sun (or rather between 12-2 when it is strongest) without at least a hat. As someone who was burned at lot as a child (here and abroad) I am aware of the damage already done? Oh the moles!

Despite letters to school every Easter (he must wear a hat, he must have a teacher apply cream), DS1 comes home with sunburn every summer term

Uniform for summer is ridiculous. I wouldn'tbdream of sending my children out at midday with a short sleeve top on.

Am I the only one whose children have sensible schools? Mine have never come home sunburned, they have always been allowed to put on their own sun cream and in reception have had help (didn't need it by Yr1).

I do think we need to be very careful with this message going out, rickets are on the rise!

Once a day sun cream. Apply in the morning, lasts til home time.
Supply child with sun hat and lightweight arm covering if necessary.
Playgrounds to have shaded areas.

I put all day suncream on for this reason - school never do it. I sent ds in a few weeks ago with cream cos I hadn't bought the all day stuff yet, and asked his teacher to remind him. She forgot, so did he, he burnt!
Vit d tablets are v cheap btw so you can always top up if worried

I put all day suncream on for this reason - school never do it. I sent ds in a few weeks ago with cream cos I hadn't bought the all day stuff yet, and asked his teacher to remind him. She forgot, so did he, he burnt!
Vit d tablets are v cheap btw so you can always top up if worried

Our school has a "no hat, no play" policy in the summer term regardless of the weather that specific day.

I do not apply sun cream to DS due to his darker skin and 30 mins (even at 12.30pm) of sun exposure a day isn't a problem for him in the UK. It would be for me!

oh dear what a scaremongering op

I can't remember ever wearing suncream or getting sunburnt at school, and I'm fairly fair skinned. Is it really a major problem in Britain? It rarely gets that hot here, and kids aren't even at school during the hottest part of the summer.

I burn within 10-15 mins in the UK
I can recommend a spray that I use now, comes in SPF 30 and 50 I think. The difference is that it's an aerosol one so comes out in a mist. No touching it, no rubbing it in, just spray and it's done

The 40% comes from a survey by a Parliamentary group in 2009. No further info readily available on the site, other than it is 40% of children being burn at school (not 40% of burnt children acquiring the burns there).

The site goes on to say about 80% of skin damage from the sun is acquired before the age of 20. And that in UK, 2 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed daily in 15-34 year olds; and that an estimated 80% of those were preventable.

So that's why they are campaigning for better awareness in British schools. It's an effective way of reaching lots of children, fostering good habits and, they hope, saving lives here in UK.

I'm all for fostering good habits but if parents can't afford or don't buy sunscreen themselves and reinforce its use at home then it won't benefit those who probably need it most.

I find this extremely frustrating.

Our school is reluctant to let the kids play in the shaded, wooded area. I don't know why. It's perfectly safe, though it contains play equipment.

I have got some all day lotion for them this year but I've not got a lot of faith in it - they'll wash their hands at some point and it'll come off, or tbh my feeling is it won't last as long as it says on the bottle.

Been lucky so far in that neither has got burnt at school (or at home, or anywhere else) but it is purely luck as the school doesn't take this seriously. They just remind parents to apply sun cream in the morning, refuse to help the children apply it during the day or make time for this, (it would cut into lesson time apparently, right) and they tell us to send in a hat but does anyone enforce wearing them? I doubt it.

You can't be there with them at school so you have to put the responsibility onto the school. I'm shocked at that statistic Meditrina.

Are the British Skin Foundation the same people who say that children under 3 should NEVER be in direct sunlight? At any time of the year. And over 3 only in the sun with long sleeves & wallops of cream?

Not sure I credit them.

From the BBC, 40% of children at some point will get sunburnt during school hours. Not 40% a year, or 40% daily. Just at least once in their lives before adulthood and during school hours. Though they may not even have been in school at the time.
That's not what I thought the thread title meant.

if you do follow all this official advice (no sun before 6 months, say, and very little afterwards), make sure you give Vit. D supplements.