Health Promotion has had a long history of working with schools in the delivery of training, support and providing resources to enhance the health and wellbeing of the whole school community.
Schools are an ideal setting to help educate and model how children can protect their skin from UV radiation from the sun and help reduce the risk of future skin cancers.
Children’s skin is very sensitive to UV from the sun which can cause long term damage. UV exposure during the first 10–15 years of life makes a disproportionately large contribution to developing skin cancer as an adult.
The Social, Personal, Health Education (SPHE) curriculum fosters self-awareness and personal development in the health and wellbeing of students. The introduction of SunSmart lesson plans for Primary school has raised awareness of skin cancer prevention for children.
Junior cycle SPHE incorporates SunSmart education as part of the Making Healthy Choices Unit 2.
Now, both primary and post primary schools can now apply for official accreditation as a SunSmart School from the HSE NCCP.
The SunSmart toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to applying for recognition as a SunSmart school. It is available for both primary and post primary schools. The toolkit offers information, resources and supports for schools to review their sun smart practices in the school environment for staff and students, through teaching and learning and school policy.
Applying for SunSmart school accreditation is free and only takes 4 steps.
1. Plan and commit – communicate plans for accreditation to the whole school community
2. Develop a SunSmart Charter (template provided in Toolkit)
3. Implement SunSmart Practices- including delivering lesson plans as part of SPHE
4. Apply for accreditation through online link (provided in Toolkit)
For those who are working or connected with schools, please promote this new accreditation and encourage schools to get involved.
The SunSmart School Toolkit is available to order or download from www.healthpromotion.ie wand is also available in Irish. For more information on the process, links to the primary and post primary toolkits and resources please see:
