Monday 13 January 2014

Perfect SunSmart School


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.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great stuff, lots of food for thought :-)

As a parent, I have to admit that I don't always remember during the mad morning rush to get my boys to slip slop slap before they go to school.

In terms of hats, our school has the wide-brimmed ones and are great at enforcing the wearing of them. I would prefer bucket hats though, because they stay on better on a windy Nor-Westerly day, they are easier to transport and store in a school bag (so are more likely to be taken on EOTC trips), they are less tempting for a small person to throw like a frisbee, and I find the brims on the brimmed hats bend. Also, our local high school has bucket hats but no-one wears them because... like... they are SO lame. But maybe, just maybe, if the kids have been wearing bucket hats for the first 13 years of their life, they may carry on in high school.

In terms of sunblock, I would like to see every classroom having some and the application of sunblock built into the school routine - lunchtime, apply sunblock, wash hands, eat lunch, play. As a parent, I would happily supply the school with sunblock and have the school to dish it out, rather than stick a bottle in the kids' bags and hope for the best. Perhaps they could have a 'sun raiser' asking parents to donate big bottles of sunblock once a year, which would hopefully supply enough to cover the parents who don't provide their kids with sunblock. Or instead of selling chocolate as a fundraiser, sell sunblock. Preferably the stuff that smells of pina coladas.

Finally, and this may already happen, but it would be good to include sun burn - the effects, the myths (getting burnt means you'll get a nice tan), and how to be SunSmart - as part of the health curriculum.

Emma said...

Great blog, Megan. Our family was unusual in that, even in the '60s and '70s, we covered up and wore sunscreen (it wasn't very GOOD sunscreen, but better than none - does anyone else remember Uvistat?). However, I do remember getting quite badly burnt a handful of times. I had an aggressively malignant melanoma diagnosed and removed when I was 21. It only takes a couple of episodes to cause heartbreak in later life. I was lucky my cancer was caught in time.