Sun hats

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

We do not have a policy on sun protection, however, I think we need one. At the moment we do insist that parents apply sun cream and sign and bring in cream for us to reapply. My question is do you insist on children wearing sun hats? We have parents and children who are very good at bringing/wearing hats but despite numerous requests other parents have not brought them in - we have our own hats but should we be bringing children in if they refuse to wear them? Which they frequently do!

 

Thanks

[Thumper]

Hello

 

We do the same as you.

 

We offer hats for those who have forgotten to bring one, but if a child refuses to wear a hat they have to stay inside

[Mouseketeer]

Ours bring a hat they stays in the setting, it's by the door and they all soon learn to put their hats on before going out.

[SueJ]

When our children enrol we ask for a named pair of wellies and a named sun hat that can be left at the setting for the duration of the child's time with us and are a Sun Safe accredited nursery so there is absolutely no ambiguity. More info about sun safe nurseries can be found by following this link

 

http://www.sunsafenurseries.co.uk/

[narnia]

yes, no hat, no outdoor play. We buy hats at the end of each summer ( Sainsbury's are often the best price-wise), so we have a good supply.

[nightingale1]

Hello there! We have some spare hats which we always keep by the entrance to the garden and also have rule of 'no hat no garden' and if a child keeps taking it off,we'll just chase after him/her all the time to make sure all children are protected from the direct sun . We have a sun protection policy,too and apply sun cream on all children twice a day. If they have no sun cream at nursery we'll contact parents asap to ask for their permission of our spare one to be applied. (usually end up calling same parents all the time as they rely solely on us to provide the cream)

[Berryred]

When our children enrol we ask for a named pair of wellies and a named sun hat that can be left at the setting for the duration of the child's time with us and are a Sun Safe accredited nursery so there is absolutely no ambiguity. More info about sun safe nurseries can be found by following this link

 

http://www.sunsafenurseries.co.uk/

thanks great link

[Guest]

Our parents sign a form when their child starts giving us permission to apply suncream for their child to rub in, we keep a bottle of factor 50 on the premises and this prevent any problems with parents not supplying their own. Likewise we have our own legionnaire sunhats (bought with sainsburys vouchers) and a 'no hat no garden' policy.

[Cait]

We are almost finished doing the sunsafe registration, just waiting for the final bit to be processed. We have legionnaire hats I got on eBay many years ago for children who have no sun hat.

[flowlow]

we have a supply of sunhats and if children don't wear them they stay in, we then approach parents and say they either wear ours or bring one in from home they like more. It only every happens once!!!

[mps09]

This is a very interesting thread for me!

 

We have always had a policy of no hat no outside, however this has become increasingly difficult with 3 children with special needs who just refuse to keep a hat on. Having been to a presentation from adults with autism who described the anxiety and discomfort of wearing constrictive clothing such as a hat - we have now reconsidered!!

 

We have lots of spare hats and lots of shaded areas outside

The children are encouraged to think about whether they need a hat - 99% of the time they do! and go and get one out of hte box left by the door. Sometimes the children with autism will accept wearing a hat and sometimes they won't.

If it is really hot and the children have been out for a while then they will be supported and encouraged to play inside for a while or within the shade.

 

This is very much our approach in the cold weather, supporting the children in making their own decisions and recognising their own needs, rather than being forced. So if it is cold and a child goes out without a coat, we remind them that if they feel cold they might like to fetch their coat - but we don't force them to wear it.

 

This makes it more inclusive in that everyone works to the same rules, we no longer have "Fred, you need a hat, no hat no outside play" - "but George isn't wearing one..." (well George won't keep one on....)

 

I have to say that this is working really well for us, the children are thinking more about what they need to do and beginning to recognise when they are feeling hot.

 

Hope this helps.

[Inge]

We used to work very much like that.. have children think and made aware of the need...

 

we did however have all staff model good practice and for them it was a case of must wear a hat outside ... we provided some caps adult sized but most supplied their own... and mine was a big old sun hat, decorated with lots of flowers, so it really stood out.. had other staff in big old hats too...children noticed them and we found a lot of them coming in with their own sun hats to ' be like Inge' when out in the garden.. when other staff tried to wear my hat they were told by the children it was not a good idea to pinch the bosses hat!

 

We were lucky and had a huge tree that provided lots of shade most of the day.

[Upsy Daisy]

You could also provide role play hats for use in the sun. I had a little boy who hated wearing his sun hat but didn't mind the baseball cap from the racing driver costume.

No sunhat meaning no outside play at all is clearly much easier to police but I've always preferred no sun hat to mean limited play in the sun if an older child really can't tolerate one. A Coolaroo shade sail or a big sun umbrella can be a great substitute for a sunhat if you allow the child to move the resources they want to underneath it.

 

If they really want to do something that must be in full sun it is for a short time or they must wear a hat.

The children I cared for from babies have always worn hats happily because they got used to the idea from being very tiny although that may not have helped if they had sensory processing difficulties which made them feel very uncomfortable.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Upsy Daisy

[Guest]

Really interesting, thanks everyone and something to debate at our parent committee meeting! Fun, fun, fun!