I heard on the radio this morning that a child has got sun burnt whilst at school because teachers are not allowed to rub sun cream on kids because they would have to physically touch the children!!!!

Obviously parents could put on cream before school but the protection would wear off by playtime.

I can't understand why with parents permission a teacher under supervision could not apply sun cream - after all we are only takling about lower arm, lower leg and face.

We are constantly being told how dangerous and harmful being exposed to the sun is but cannot protect our children whilst at school. Even though lunch breaks are not very long they are long enough to get burnt.

Most parents especially in infant schools know at least one teacher or dinner lady quite well and older children could apply their own cream.

What do other parents think - would you be OK with an approved teacher or dinner lady putting cream on your child under supervision?

At my son's nursery, they will put sun cream on him if I provide it and if I have filled in a permission slip. If they were unwilling to do this, I would ask them not to let him outside.

At the school where I work, we put sun cream on children after gaining parent's permission (verbally). We also provide each child with a hat.

However, at a school where I have previously worked, we had to put the sun cream into the child's hand and direct them into rubbing it in (which as you can imagine, was a big mess and not very effective).

There are then those parents who won't give permission because their child's teacher is male / homosexual / black etc (unbelievable but true).

School are rightly very careful about protecting themselves against any form of allegation but once permission has been given, I don't see any problem.

Dawny1

Why would the ,"teacher ", need to be , "under supervision" ?
Maybe you mean there should be another adult present? But if we are going to have 2 adults putting sun-cream , carefully on , say , 30 children [how many times a day ? ] , when will theydo their lessons. ? I'm not asking this sarcastically but it does seem a bit time-consuming.
Surely if an adult were planning to assult a child , they wouldn't pick a time when everyone was crowde round having sun-tan daubed on them !
Perhaps we don't get enough sunny days in Britain to worry about it much , anyway !

I use P20 on my kids. Put it on in the morning and it lasts all day.

Unfortunately this sort of thing is prevalent in a lot of schools where the teachers just aren't allowed to physically touch the child for any reason.
My youngest son bashed his nose in at school and they phoned me to come ASAP as it wouldn't stop bleeding. I got there and his class teacher was with him passing him tissues and telling him how to hold his nose, she explained that they just aren't allowed to help. He was 6 years old with blood literally poring from his nose all over the place.
I foned a taxi to take him to the childrens hospital because I just couldn't get his nose to stop bleeding. He was scared stiff because of all the blood but his teacher just wasn't "allowed" to help him stem the bleeding at all.
Seems to me that the rules and regulations are there to ensure that no recriminations are made against the teachers.
We hear everyday about the little darlings who insinuate that their teacher pushed them, when sometimes it's nothing more than a teacher using the flat of their hand on a childs back to guide them into a classroom. My mother is a teaching assistant and she had a complaint registered against her when she did this. So I can see both sides of these new "rules". The teachers need to protect themselves, but at what cost to the innocent kids who may need help.

Put some on in the morning and TEACH YOUR OWN CHILD how to apply it. Yes even children in Key stage 1, given instruction and responsibility can manage this.

Teachers are paid to teach, not to nanny. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but putting sun cream on one child might take one minute, putting it on 30 ..... well I'll leave you that one to work out for yourself.

:rolleyes:

Originally posted by Fareast
Dawny1

Why would the ,"teacher ", need to be , "under supervision" ?
Maybe you mean there should be another adult present? But if we are going to have 2 adults putting sun-cream , carefully on , say , 30 children [how many times a day ? ] , when will theydo their lessons. ?

Yes I did mean with another adult present and yes I agree it's ridiculously time consuming. I think most parents would be willing to sign a permission slip for younger children who cannot apply their own suncream to have it applied for them. I was just surprised to hear on the radio that a school wouldn't do that. I can't see the problem if a parent agrees. As some of you are saying certain schools do allow this.

Zamo - i didn't realise there was a sun cream that lasted all day without having to be reapplied, that would solve the whole problem.

I personally haven't come across the problem yet as my youngest will start nursery this September this subject was something I heard this morning and wondered about different schools policy on it.

LeelyBee I agree It's a shame that teachers have to feel so worried about being around our children but then I suppose we all know that some bad uns slip threw the net of so called screening.

Originally posted by Mo
Put some on in the morning and TEACH YOUR OWN CHILD how to apply it. Yes even children in Key stage 1, given instruction and responsibility can manage this.

Teachers are paid to teach, not to nanny. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but putting sun cream on one child might take one minute, putting it on 30 ..... well I'll leave you that one to work out for yourself.

:rolleyes:


As I said I never had this problem and yes my other three daughters did indeed apply their own cream and I don't expect staff to apply cream to my 3 year old as you so rightly say they are not nannys but I was just surprised that teachers were not allowed to at this school mentioned on the radio because I didn't realise teachers were so restricted by school policy about touching kids, it never entered my head that putting on sun cream or stopping a nose bleed was such a problem.

It's not putting on sun cream that I was getting at in particular in my post so I am sorry I should have made it a bit clearer, I was just trying to put across my surprise at such an innocent thing has to be a problem nowadays.

It never ceases to amaze me though just how little heed parents actually take of the sun when it comes to their children. At lunchtime today, the hottest part of the day, a huge proportion of children were running around the yard in sleeveless tops, with no hats on. There is virtually no shade for the children to go in and it's just not feasible to take them all inside. I always make sure my kids are covered up and have sun cream and hats on. The teachers just don't have the time to be putting sun cream on a class of 30 kids. I do think the parents need to take a bit more responsibility when it's so hot.

Originally posted by dawny1
Zamo - i didn't realise there was a sun cream that lasted all day without having to be reapplied, that would solve the whole problem.


This is it here. (http://www.pharmacy2u.co.uk/holiday_and_suncare-428836HO/suncare___protection-s-574449SU/riemann_p20_sun_filter_high_protection-RIP200.html)

It's expensive but it is so convenient and you only put it on once, which I suppose makes it last a bit longer!