Sun Safety at the Cubbyhouse.
Did you know that the Cubbyhouse Preschool and Long Day Care Centres are registered with the Cancer Council as sun smart services? The Cubbyhouse liaises with the Cancer Council and other authorities to keep up to date with knowledge and strategies for educating the children, staff and families.
We have policies and practices in place that we all must follow to meet the requirements of our registration.
With our harsh sun it is important for our youngest people to learn good sun safe habits from the get go.
Our educators support the little ones to embed these practices into their everyday lives. Our educators model sun safety practices, wearing hats, shirts with covered sleeves and put on sun screen in front of the children.
We ask that families provide their children with hats and apply sun screen before coming to Cubbyhouse. Especially in Summer. We do have spare hats and sun screen available to reapply throughout the day.
We encourage the children to wear adequate covering of clothing for outdoor play. Clothing should be loose fitting and made of tightly woven fabrics, it should protect as much of the children’s skin as possible. Singlet tops, midriff / crop tops and sleeveless dresses are not recommended.
Our outdoor events and excursions will be staged with sun protection factors in mind, e.g. Timing, clothing, hats, sunscreen, length of the activity.
We review of the effectiveness of our sun safety protection policy annually. The policy is available for viewing by all staff, families and visitors in the Parent Policies Manual.
Recently at The Cubbyhouse Centres we have helped the children set up their own “sun screen stations” where they learn about the importance of sun safety as well as develop their sense of identity and a feeling of belonging.
They can check themselves out in the mirror while putting on the sun screen and hats. They have been having discussions with the educators and the other children about how to be sun safe. We also asked the children if they would like a photo of themself getting ready to go out in the sun and have put them up on display at our sun screen stations.
The children seem to be loving it. And we have had barely any hassles getting them to keep their hats on!