It is half past eight
at Perfect SunSmart School. See the students arriving for the day. They are
sunscreened already (SPF 30+) and wearing sunsmart clothing. They have not
forgotten their hats and their wraparound sunglasses are ready in the top
pocket of their long sleeved closely woven UV protecting shirts.
“Hello” they chirrup
to their teachers as they walk along the covered walkway to the cloakroom where
they hang up their backpacks and the swimming bags containing their sunprotective
lip balm and their rash tops.
At their outdoor
events, early in the day before the UV levels rise too high, their hats never
blow off or fly out behind them strangling them with the elastic.
Before lunch, the
children reapply their sunscreen taking care to apply the right amount and
cover all exposed skin. At lunch, they eat their midday meal in a pleasant
shady area before playing on the field with their hats on, or staying in the
shade, or spending time in an indoor area such as the library or designated classroom.
The duty teachers watch the children from under the wide brims of their own
sunhats.
Now it is home time.
“Bye” the children chirrup to their teachers as they walk off sunhatted to the
gate. See the parents in their sunhats. Smell the sunscreen.
Wave goodbye.
The feedback from our recent review of Sun Protection
suggests that this happy scene is not repeated every day at every school,
although overall reviewers were happy with the policy itself, and mostly happy
with the school’s implementation of it.
Everyone agrees that sun protection is important, but it
seems we have different levels of commitment to it. The policy, which is based
on the SunSmart criteria for accreditation as a SunSmart school, is implemented
to different degrees by individual schools, by individual teachers, and by
parents.
Most schools do a great job of protecting their community
from sun damage through practical strategies and education, but here are the
common themes of dissatisfaction:
Not enough shade:
children forced to sit in the full sun to eat lunch and at sports events, etc.
Children coming home from school or EOTC activities with sunburn.
School uniform or
dress code: a lightweight shirt with a collar is a better option than a T-shirt,
especially if made of a UV shielding material. Should school uniforms be moving
towards longer shorts/skirts /sleeves and better fabrics? Schools without
uniforms generally have a dress code that doesn’t permit singlets, spaghetti -strap
tops etc, but should it go further?
Sunhats: the wide
brimmed hats recommended by SunSmart and part of most schools’ school uniforms
are great protection for the face, neck, ears, and the eyes. Caps, on the other
hand, offer less protection and where schools allow caps for senior students,
younger students want them too and perceive their wide brimmed hats as
“uncool”. Legionnaire hats or wide brimmed hats should be the uniform sunhat.
Adults need to be good role models with hats and we’re not. While most schools
expect teachers to wear sunhats at school, many of us parents pay little
attention to our everyday sunhat modelling.
Access to sunscreen: There
seems to be a hit and miss approach to the provision of sunscreen at schools.
Some do, some don’t, some classrooms do, some don’t. Many parents commented
that their children used sunscreen before school but were not encouraged to
reapply it before lunch even when sunscreen was available in the classroom.
Engagement: It’s
my observation that many people still don’t understand that it’s the level of
ultraviolet radiation in the environment that is the danger, not the
temperature or the cloud cover. There are great resources on the SunSmart
website that can be used at school, or in newsletters, school websites,
etc. UVI (UltraViolet Index) information
is updated every day on a number of websites, such as http://www.niwa.co.nz/our-services/online-services/uv-and-ozone/todays-uv-index
These graphs can help show that sun protection is needed all through the summer
not just on the hot sunny days.
It’s important that principals and boards look at the
implementation review feedback from this review and address the issues raised
at their schools. There are many points for robust discussion and reporting
back to the community.
Also see our previous Sun Protection blog.
