Celebrating 30 years of SunSmart Schools Program in Victoria

SunSmart Victoria’s Schools Program has hit a major milestone, celebrating 30 years of supporting schools to be sun safe, and more importantly, contributing to a decline in melanoma rates in Victoria for people under the age of 50 years.

Schools play a big role in reducing melanoma and skin cancer risk by putting policies in place to reduce UV exposure at school and teaching sensible sun protection habits from an early age.

Read the media release from Premier of Victoria, The Hon. Jacinta Allan MP, Celebrating 30 years of ‘Slip, Slop, Slap’ across Victoria.

Thank you to all the schools, staff and teachers across Victoria for all you do in championing sun protective habits in a fun and memorable way to help students create lifesaving habits. If you’d like to remind students and families of how they can support your SunSmart school, here is some content for your next newsletter:

SunSmart’s school tips for families:

Create opportunities for your child to apply sunscreen, so they know how to do it independently before and during school.
Attach sunscreen to your child’s backpack, so it can be an easy reminder to reapply at school.
Label your child’s hat, so they can easily grab their hat before heading outdoors.
Encourage your child to look for shady spaces to play outdoors.

For more information visit: www.sunsmart.com.au

Celebrating 30 years of SunSmart Schools

To celebrate 30 years of the SunSmart Schools Program in Victoria, SunSmart is giving away 100 SunSmart Member 30th Birthday packs.

To help schools to celebrate their SunSmart membership in 2024, as part of the SunSmart Schools Program 30th birthday celebrations all year long, SunSmart will be sending the first 100 schools to renew their SunSmart membership a SunSmart 30th Birthday pack.

The 30th Birthday pack includes:

A metal SunSmart Membership sign (normally $60)

100 SunSmart school sticker sheets

2 copies of our new children's book 'Jiggle Jaggle Hop' and its accompanying poster

OR

6 copies of our Secondary poster: Protect your skin from UV

There is no cost to renew your membership and it can be done online in around 10–15 minutes.

To renew your SunSmart membership, head to the online form on the SunSmart website here

*To be eligible to receive a SunSmart 30th Birthday pack your school's membership renewal must be due in 2024 or it must be 3 or more years since your last membership renewal AND your sun protection policy must meet current recommendations and guidelines as outlined by the Department of Education or SunSmart and Cancer Council.

Renew your SunSmart membership

SunSmart membership renewals are changing

SunSmart is pleased to announce that due to the high quality and standard of sun protection policies in use in Victorian schools and early childhood services, SunSmart has made the decision to extend the membership renewal period from three years to five years.

SunSmart will continue to remain in contact with all our members between renewals and welcome any members who wish to send their policy in for a review between renewals to us at schools@cancervic.org.au.

SunSmart continually strives to improve our support for our members and to provide the best possible resources and information at all times. If you would like any information relating to sun protection for schools please contact us at schools@cancervic.org.au, or submit a request via our online Teacher requests and feedback form on our website or head to the Schools Advice pages on our website for more information.

Renew your SunSmart membership

Once the Index hits 3, Cover up from UV.

Pre-Register for SunSmart's new online learning courses

SunSmart is excited to announce we will shortly be launching a suite of new online learning modules. We have been working hard to design and develop courses specifically for:

Primary school teachers and staff,
Primary school students (years 5 and 6),
Secondary school teachers and staff, and
Secondary schools students (years 9 and 10).

The interactive and engaging courses have been designed to:

Raise awareness of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and the harms it can cause to skin and eyes
Educate and increase knowledge of when sun protection measures are needed
Increase knowledge of and intentions to use the 5 sun protection measures
Raise awareness of UV policy and OHS requirements in schools
Increase awareness of and need for early detection of skin cancers.

The SunSmart courses designed for teachers and educators address both personal sun protection information and sun protection information and guidance relating to children and students in their care. The teachers’ courses will also assist teachers to demonstrate their teaching practice and expertise under Standards 4.4 and 7.2 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL).

The SunSmart courses for students provide a clear and easy to follow structure that enables students to engage in and understand the reason for sun protection measures and strategies in place within their school. This supports schools with sun protection practices and strategies and enables students to take this information away to also share with family and friends outside of the school setting. All modules for students have been mapped to the Victorian Curriculum.

SunSmart is offering these courses free of charge to all our Victorian SunSmart Schools Program members and all Victorian Secondary schools.

If you would like to pre-register for the courses for yourself or your students, please email SunSmart at schools@cancervic.org.au and please provide the following information:

Your name
School name and location
The course you are interested in (Teacher and/or Student course)

Once we have received your expression of interest for the course/s we will be in contact in the coming weeks to provide you with access to the course/s and further information regarding your registration.

SunSmart Global UV app turns 1!

SunSmart Victoria marks one year since the SunSmart Global UV app launched in Australia.

The app gives users real-time, location-specific UV and sun protection advice, and has more than 360,000 downloads globally.

Leading into the Australian summer, when the UV index consistently reaches extreme levels, the app was downloaded almost 35,000 times by Aussies with close to 100,000 active users each month checking UV levels to protect themselves.

We hear from many schools, that daily checking of the local daily sun protection times with students via the SunSmart Global UV app or widget and displaying this information for the whole school community to see, helps increase sun protection knowledge and behaviours and normalises this important habit.

If you haven’t already, make sure you downloaded the new SunSmart Global UV app and widget to determine what your local sun protection times are. It’s still free and allows you to add up to five locations from across the world.

Read the full story here.

Download the SunSmart Global UV app

Did you know...?

Wearing a broad-brim hat can reduce UV radiation to the eyes by 50%.

Wearing a broad-brim hat and close fitting wrap-around sunglasses can reduce UV radiation to the eyes by 98%.

Effective shade can reduce UV radiation by 78%.

Sunscreen should be applied 20mins before heading outside and reapplied every 2 hours or more frequently if sweating or swimming?

Recite Me functionality is now available

To help improve accessibility to SunSmart information and resources for a wide range of audiences, SunSmart is proud to announce the introduction of the Recite Me function to our website.

Watch a video demonstration of how Recite Me works

Enjoy reading the SunSmart newsletter and find it a great way to keep up-to-date on all the latest offerings from SunSmart? Why not share the SunSmart joy with your colleagues, peers, and workplace contacts too. To share, click here.

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