Suncream in schools

[babyandtoddlergrwp]

What is the policy in your primary school?
Is it allowed? Not allowed?

Our school doea not allow it and asks parents to apply a long lasting one before school. Curious about other schools and what they do.

The problem is, it needs supervising. I've known 4 year olds who have had it in their bag (unbeknown to us) decide to sneak it out during lesson time and apply it independently in the cloakroom, ending up requiring an eye wash treatment due to getting it in their eyes. I've known children to offer it to their friends and it leading to skin irritation due to sensitivities (in a worse case scenario, it could cause an allergic reaction for someone).

It's always a contentious topic. Obviously sun cream is essential for sun safety, but it can be a pita for school staff to manage. We're not allowed to rub it in for them, we can only guide them as to how much to squeeze out and where they need to rub it. When it comes to children so young, it's impossible to (safely) leave them to their own devices. We do guide, because it's important for their safety, but it is a time consuming pain and unfortunately there are always the odd hiccups along the way (such as the children who try to sneakily apply on their own, or share it out to their friends).

No sooner have you finally ditched the numerous time consuming layers of coat, woolly hat, scarf and gloves, you're back into a time consuming routine of ensuring everyone who has it has applied their sun cream ok. You can guarantee if one child slipped through the net and didn't apply the sun cream their grown up has provided for them, the parents will moan at us for not reminding them. Yet if they applied it incorrectly, independently, and caused problems such as getting it in their eyes, we'd also get the blame for not supervising them!

Yes. You are in loco parentis. It really is the responsibility of the school during school hours. Parents are not there to sort it, but children need protection from th sun. I see that there are issues around it, but fundamentally, schools need to protect children from harm and very small people cannot be responsible for sunscreen alone.

I know we're in loco parents, hense why I say we do do it. I'm just acknowledging though that it really isn't as simple as many seem to think. We definitely can't just let them do it themselves.

Between this and the teeth brushing they're keen to force upon us imminently, in addition to the nappy changing which seems to be the norm these days, I'm really not sure how we're meant to actually fit in any teaching these days.

I’ve never put suncream on my DC before school or sent them in with suncream. The only time suncream has ever come into the chat has been for residential trips and sports day.

It is permitted and in the summer the kids are not allowed recess outside if they don’t have their hats (in reality they have spares, but most children remember to bring them and wear them).

Even suppliers themselves are moving away from marketing creams as ‘once per day’ because that message isn’t true and it is known that effectiveness wears off. Kids get hot and sweaty, they play in water, wash hands, clean their faces after eating etc.

I get it’s a pain in the arse for schools but nurseries manage it with much younger children and holiday clubs seem to manage it. A lot of schools seem to be overly reliant on hats as the answer when actually the kids are then out playing in the full sun at lunchtime with unprotected skin.

Ours are encouraged to bring their own in and reapply in the day. They have to apply independently though.