Nottinghamshire County Council councillor partnered with national charity SKCIN to launch countywide Sun Safe Schools campaign

A Sun Safe Schools accreditation campaign has been launched in primary schools.

The free Sun Safe Schools accreditation programme is part of a collaboration between national charity SKCIN and Nottinghamshire County Council leader Sam Smith.

The programme is designed to help primary schools fulfill their duty of care to safeguard children against UV radiation and educate them on the importance of sun safety and prevent skin cancer in later life.

To kick off the campaign, Chuter Ede School in Balderton was one of the first schools in the county to participate in the programme and earn its Sun Safe status.

The school’s head, Bernadette Hunter, said: “I was delighted for our school to take part in this important initiative.

“Early intervention is crucial, and educating young people about sun safety is essential — it can have a lasting impact on their health and wellbeing, both now and in the future.

“The programme is not only accessible and engaging for all age groups, but the resources provided are also highly relevant and valuable”.

The programme already has more than 6,000 involved nationally, reaching more than one million children nationwide and sun safety is now included in the national PHSE curriculum for primary schools.

As part of this campaign, primary schools that complete or renew their accreditation by May 31 will have the opportunity to win a free one-litre cartridge of sunscreen and a wall-mounted dispenser, along with a free copy of the charity’s popular illustrated book, George the Sun Safe Superstar.

The free sunscreen dispenser will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to the first 100 schools that complete or renew their annual accreditation.

Primary schools can find out more about the Sun Safe Schools programme and register to take part at www.sunsafeschools.co.uk

To qualify for a free dispenser with suncream, people need to email a valid certificate of accreditation to louise.tucker@skcin.org.

SKCIN chief executive Marie Tudor, who lives in Balderton, said: “With skin cancer cases growing at an alarming rate, we need to combat this national public health concern with education.

“The nation’s sun behaviours need to change, and to do this, we are best to start with the next generation to evoke behaviour change, help reduce skin cancer cases and mitigate the burden on our NHS.

“Our Sun Safe Schools national accreditation programme has been a great success since its inception 13 years ago.

“With over 6,000 primary schools coming on board and thousands of glowing testimonials from teachers praising the intervention, we are immensely pleased with this achievement.

“We are delighted that councillor Sam Smith is supporting this vital prevention initiative.”