File it under “Fear of frying.”
A school in Jersey (one of the Channel Islands between England and France) has cancelled its annual beach trip due to the possibility of sun.
Students from St George’s Preparatory in St Peter normally enjoy an end-of-year beach day but the school decided to cancel the outing, citing warnings about the dangers of mid-day sun exposure.
“In recognition of the Jersey Health department’s advice regarding the dangers of the midday sun, it is with considerable regret that I have decided to cancel our annual day on the beach in July,” Headmaster Colin Moore wrote, informing parents of the decision. “We are busy trying to organise a less exposed alternative event but believe whatever we do the children’s health must take priority.”
Perhaps the children can frolic in a classroom with the shades drawn. Or maybe there’s a cozy cave nearby?
Mr Moore defended the decision today, saying while he believes children should spend time outdoors and enjoy the sunshine, the logistical difficulties of having 210-220 children of various ages on the beach for four hours swayed him toward cancellation.
He pointed out that individual classes still enjoy trips to the seaside — with the school’s reception classes on a rock-pooling trip this week.
“For a class of 20 children, even at the younger ages, you can find shade, perhaps under a tree. If there are concerns, you can call a minibus and go back to the school,” he said.
“With over 200 children, however, if you are on the beach for four hours, you are on the beach for four hours, in the hottest part of the day, and you cannot provide shade for 200-plus children.”
Now, I do understand that this trip presents a challenge and that the sun can burn kids. And it really doesn’t look like there’s a lot of shade at this beach:
But somehow, until this instant, this trip was an annual and presumably enjoyable outing. What’s more, the health department itself tried to shed some light on its generic “beware the sun” warning:
The Health Department said today they encourage balance rather than outright sun avoidance for children.
“HSSD has not provided any advice that would encourage children to completely avoid enjoying the outdoors between the hours of 11 and 3pm when the sun is at its strongest,” said Martin Knight, Head of Health Improvement.
“A balance needs to be struck between children gaining the benefits of sun exposure — including a sense of well-being, synthesis of vitamin D and outdoor physical activity — against the dangers of burning.”
I feel for the headmaster, because once you start worst-first thinking, “What if the kids get sunburned? Or cancer?” nothing seems worth the risk. But that’s what we’re doing all the time — ONLY considering risk, not joy or independence or even convenience, when it comes to our kids. So no foods seem safe enough, no equipment, no strangers, no playground surfacing, no unsupervised time (duh!) and now, no day at the beach.
On the plus side, parents will not have to spill sand out of their kids’ shoes when they get home. – L.
40 Comments
What did they do the year before?
Oh, jeeze. *facepalm*
Truly pathetic! People have been going out in the sun since the dawn of time – granted UV rays are stronger now than they used to be – but it’s not like there aren’t ways of dealing with this (sunscreen and hats, to start with). I would certainly be protesting this decision if I were one of the students’ parents, although I’m pretty sure it would fall on deaf ears (I would still mention, even just for the satisfaction of venting to the principal).
That’s like my school telling us to send the kids in at 8:30am with sun block on for the after lunch period when the kids will be outside. As if the kids could not do it themselves, or at the very least, its going to last 4 hours through morning classes.
*yeesh
How strong is the sun in that area of the world? I remember being in Portsmouth one June, very sunny, I was out all day and barely got a “glow” – when I’m home in Texas I get about that rosy in 15 minutes.
To be honest, I would be more nervous about 200 kids at the beach as opposed to 200 kids in the sun.
What does he think the kids do when they are at home? Apparently not playing outside or going to the beach with their family.
And if the parents give permission for the kids to go to the beach, notwithstanding the “midday sun,” why does the school think it is in a position to override that?
Clearly their primary concern is a liability suit 40 years from now when a former student gets melanoma. Also obvious that sunscreen is illegal or unavailable on the Isle of Jersey.
But seriously it sounds to me like there were other, more mundane issues with the trip, and management, like all management, lied about it without thinking about how ridiculous they would sound.
I’m an American living in England, and I can vouch for the fact that people in this neck of the woods treat the sun like an evil monster — perhaps because they so rarely see it. At my kids’ school, they have a big bottle of sunscreen that you are supposed to slather on your kid as they walk in the door, just in case you forgot to do it at home, therefore breaking your sunscreen contract (yes, I had to sign one). No, I have never put sunscreen on my kids here. Once.
A few years ago, I was in Scotland with a native friend, and the thermometer hit 60 and the sun came out for PART of the day, meaning all the locals got practically naked while I was still in pants and long sleeves the whole day. I kid you not, she got a sunburn after about 2 hours of kind-of sun. Their pale skin just can’t take the slightest hint of sun, or they fry, while I freeze.
“Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun…”
Schools, where madness is uncontrolled.
And hear I was thinking they were going to be afraid of high school kids eating the sunscreen or something again. All these things get so ridiculous with so much paperwork that people tie themselves in knots and decide that the simplest thing is too much to handle. How about bringing a party tent or something? Or applying lots of sun screen?
On the paperwork front, I had a refreshing break. I was signing my little one up for religious school, and was really dreading the paperwork. But it turned out to be easy! Everything they planned on and had to get approval for under one signature and a few check boxes. Covering the fact that on foot field trips are a normal part of the course, including into the woods. And yes, they will allow parents to take pictures of kids around the school (though please don’t publish on line). And by the way mark the check boxs if you would like us to use our judgement to give your kid any of the following: sunscreen, Tylenol, ibuprofen, benadryl. Somehow they managed to keep it short and sweet too!
O_o
Translation: “We don’t want to get sued by parents if any children get sunburned. So rather than do the smart thing and make sure children have adequate sunscreen, they do the typical paranoid thing…cancel it all together”. Better safe than sorry, for sure. But not for the children, for the school administration.
This sounds as stupid as the no sunscreen rule. Oh no kids might drink sunscreen. Oh no the kids might get no shade.
It has been a long time since I was in England so I wasn’t aware that they had stopped selling sunscreen there such that they all need to stay inside when it is sunny.
I wish the folks running the local summer camps in L.A. would cancel their beach summer trips. Whenever our nice, quiet group of homeschooling kids goes to the beach in the summer, we are deluged with buses of kids from the inner city and the valleys. They swarm the beach, play loud music, and generally ruin our peaceful day. And then there are the summer camps that are ON the beach, and play even louder music. But I live in California, and we love the sun, so there you go.
Seriously though, isn’t anyone concerned about vitamin D deficiency, which is becoming more of a problem every year, and is worse in northern climates such as the one in the article? I really feel sorry for the kids, who will now miss their annual trip to the beach.
At first I thought that this must be some joke from a website such as the onion . . . but perhaps it is real and not a joke.
Now, would it work to give the kids some guidance to be in shady areas at times, or to walk along the sidewalks next to buildings where there is shade?
What happened to kids last year? Were there any visits to an emergency room?
Do they really not have sunscreen available or are y’all pulling my leg??
Are there really no beach umbrellas or pop up shade tents to be had in all of Great Britain? How primitive.
The timing of this article is coincidental. I am a Big Brother volunteer and tomorrow (Saturday) a BB outing is scheduled at one of the local parks. There’s gonna be games and food and an assortment of activities for both the littles and the bigs. Seeing it’s summer here in the South, naturally it’s gonna be hot tomorrow as it is very hot today. In fact, common sense, basic meteorology and experience would tell you that there has never been a summer here in the deep south when the weather was not hot. Well fortunately they didn’t cancel the event but I just received this email today from BB:
“Good morning Bigs,
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up, there is a heat advisory in effect for this weekend. Saturday, particularly, will have a heat index of 105-110. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THAT IN MIND WHEN PLANNING WHAT TO WEAR TOMORROW” (Well, I was planning on wearing my overcoat so thanks for the warning). “MAKE SURE YOUR LITTLES ARE DRESSED APPROPRIATELY FOR EXTREMELY HOT WEATHER.” (Wonder what they’d say if I brought him to the event naked)
I mean, goodness, it’s HOT. I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that wearing a long sleeve wool shirt when temperatures are hovering in the upper 90s F. would not be in their best interest! I could probably understand a warning if it was a winter event and the weather was suppose to be exceptionally cold. But if it’s very hot you pretty much dress the same way engaging in an activity outside as you do sitting in a lawn chair outside or merely walking to your car. You dress as little as possible!
Now folks, don’t worry, I’m not gonna bring my “little brother” to the event naked!
Unbelievable! Just wear loose longsleeved clothing and floppy hats if you’re that worried, pop on the ultra high sunscreen and go for it. Some of these Brits do burn very easily, but still….
I am wondering too if it’s actually the sun this principal is worried about, or if it’s just a convenient excuse. Personally I absolutely hate whole school beach trips, as they feel like an invitation for some kid to drown, but you just have to choke down your anxiety and keep hypervigilant (and take a long hot bath with your friend Jack Daniel’s afterwards ☺).
Hopefully community pressure will come to bear on this chap and he’ll backtrack. …
I think it’s a cultural heritage problem. Something about mad dogs and Englishmen out in the noonday sun….
Copied from other thread:
“It’s about the fact that the kids don’t get to go to the beach for a stupid reason.”
But it’s not a fact that the kids don’t get to go to the beach for a stupid reason. It’s a fact that the kids don’t get to have one schoolday at the beach for a stupid reason. And that’s amazingly trivial. Waaah. Didn’t get to spend one schoolday at the beach… whole life is now ruined!
“If it doesn’t bother you that kids get restricted from things for stupid reasons because other kids wouldn’t have gotten to do it anyway, one wonders why you bother reading this site.”
You really missed the point.
Copied from other thread.
“James…you reacted here, so I’m going to tell you here. America is a big part of a continent.”
Duh. Thank you for informing me of this. I had NO idea.
“The Jersey Islands are….islands.”
Really? You don’t say? Islands? Huh.
“Islands are surrounded by grass…no, ice cream. …no, beaches and the sea.”
Wow. This is such a revelation.
“How ridiculous to consider that people shouldn’t get worked up about no beach days.”
WTF are you talking about here? If children actually ARE prohibited from being on the beach unless they’re in school, they should DEFINITELY get worked up. Is that how the beaches are run where you are?
“I suppose you think places like islands have vast forest areas or prairies where children could go hunting for weeks as an alternative?”
Huh?
Of course, it’s also possible that the school has been considering discontinuing this outing for several years now, for reasons such as student discipline or cost, and has just now gotten an opportunity to cancel and pin it on somebody else. Perhaps the local merchants have been complaining of barely- or un-supervised kids running around, or some of the kids have taken the opportunity to disappear into the brush in pairs for a bit of, er, extracurricular activity.
From Diane: How strong is the sun in that area of the world? I remember being in Portsmouth one June, very sunny, I was out all day and barely got a “glow” — when I’m home in Texas I get about that rosy in 15 minutes.
It looks like the latitude of Jersey is close to the same as the US/Canada border in the midwest. When we lived in Grand Forks, ND, 1 hr from the border, it most definitely was possible to burn pretty quickly. It’s all about what you are acclimated to, and whether or not you have a base tan built up. I can stay out all day, and my tan arms don’t care; put me in a swimsuit, and my back will be scorched within 30min.
Oh for Pete’s sake- l have had skin cancer. You send the kids out with hats, sunglasses, clothing to wear over their bathing suit and lots of 50SPF sunscreen reapplied regularly. This is a sorry excuse to cancel an outing. Yay vitamin D (assuming any got through).
Probably canceled for other reasons, like liability if someone drowned. My daughter had a trip to the beach in Kinder. We lived about 5 miles from the beach, as the bird flies. The teacher made them stay 50 feet away from the water, on the far side of a dune, so that they couldn’t even SEE the water as they were building their sand castles.
Fortunately, I decided to drive her myself, so I and one other mom, stayed behind and then the good stuff happened. We walked out the pier to the concrete boat from WWI. We watched the birds on the decaying wreckage. Then we walked under the pier and saw the urchins and starfish on the pilings. Then…gasp, we actually GOT IN the WATER. It was cold, so we only went up to the knees. We gathered shells, and sea glass and had a good time.
Great news for sellers of Vitamin D supplements, by coincidence. I’ve gone to the beach with several classes and other teachers, and each class spreads out so we can monitor time in sun vs. time in shade. Nobody gets burned.
In my former high school, seniors have been allowed to leave campus for lunch for as long as anyone can remember, with one exception- my senior year. In my junior year, a student was killed in a car accident during an off campus lunch run. The next year the school instituted a ban on seniors leaving campus for lunch. Students and parents complained about and protested this all year. As a result, way too close to 30 years later, my class still stands as the only senior class not allowed to leave for lunch in school history. I have no doubt that none of those almost 30 years of seniors would have been allowed to leave campus if we had all just said “many in the world kids can’t leave campus for lunch so it is ridiculous to get worked up about this” and let it go.
So, yes, they should protest the ending of their school beach trip for a stupid reason. Not because a day at the beach is the most important thing in the world or is something that they never get to do outside of school, but because it is something that they enjoyed that is being taken away from them for an incredibly dumb reason. It may end up being that the school realizes that it is being stupid and reverses course in future years.
I would hope that our school would not have graduated any of us if we said “many in the world kids” about anything. I meant “many kids in the world” and have no idea how the words got mixed up. This blog needs an edit function.
“In my former high school, seniors have been allowed to leave campus for lunch for as long as anyone can remember, with one exception- my senior year.”
You poor dear. Clearly the trauma of this injustice continues to resonate even now. Perhaps you are due some compensation of some sort.
In other news SLIGHTLY more important to Jersey schoolchildren, it seems possible that the U.K. may come apart at the seams, with Northern Ireland now joining Scotland in considering secession. But sure, a bunch of Americans (and others) whining about schoolchildren in another country missing a beach day is important, too.
“He pointed out that individual classes still enjoy trips to the seaside — with the school’s reception classes on a rock-pooling trip this week.”
As much as I like freerangekids.com, I don’t think this particular story is one to be bothered about.
The real reason they cancelled the trip was because 200 kids, the entire school, are too many to take on a field trip at one time (huge headache for the people in charge), while smaller groups are easier.
” the logistical difficulties of having 210-220 children of various ages on the beach for four hours swayed him toward cancellation.
He pointed out that individual classes still enjoy trips to the seaside — with the school’s reception classes on a rock-pooling trip this week.”
This isn’t actually a story about attitudes towards the sun-this was a decision made based on not wanting to supervise literally hundreds of kids on a huge trip. Smaller groups still do go to the beach.
“Clearly the trauma of this injustice continues to resonate even now. Perhaps you are due some compensation of some sort.”
Because that is clearly what I said.
“In other news SLIGHTLY more important to Jersey schoolchildren, it seems possible that the U.K. may come apart at the seams, with Northern Ireland now joining Scotland in considering secession. But sure, a bunch of Americans (and others) whining about schoolchildren in another country missing a beach day is important, too.”
Yes, because until all the world’s problems are solved, people are not allowed to have opinions on any other subject whatsoever. And clearly nobody could possibly have opinions about BOTH situations and discuss each in their proper forums. In fact, this blog should cease to exist until the continued unity of the UK is firmly established.
“‘Clearly the trauma of this injustice continues to resonate even now. Perhaps you are due some compensation of some sort.’
Because that is clearly what I said.”
When I said “clearly”, I meant “clearly”. This is still bothering you after (by your account) nearly 30 years. You poor thing…. a member of the ONLY class to be DENIED the right to leave campus for lunch as seniors. (Perhaps I would feel my sympathy for you if I hadn’t gone to a high school which has had a closed campus for its entire history, but probably not.)
“Yes, because until all the world’s problems are solved, people are not allowed to have opinions on any other subject whatsoever.”
Feel free to quote me saying anything contrariwise. I’ll wait. No OK, then.
In the meantime, should the school administrators focus on the actual and present events affecting their charges, or should they focus on addressing the objections to their decisions of people on completely different continents?
We still have the facts: This one particular school made a lame excuse for cancelling an event that affects none of us.
The appropriate level of response (for Americans) is “meh”.
Consider it this way… when you take charge of other people’s children, you do so on YOUR terms. If the parents do not like your terms, they should not place their children in your care. (Yes, truancy laws and mandatory education place a burden on people economically or socially unable to opt out of public education. That’s a tangent. Stay with me.)
The school, in this case, is giving a pretty shaky reason for not taking all of the schoolchildren to the beach. But this does not matter, as they could give any reason or no reason; parents who want their children at the beach should take them there themselves.
The fact that last year, they did it, and the year before, and the year before, (etc.) does not obligate them to continue doing so.
@ James – you are the perfect example of American arrogance and ignorance. Fortunately you seem to be the sole American who comments on this blog to consistently display said….
So, no one should have an opinion on this because it doesn’t affect American kids? Wow….As to your ridiculous replies to my comments on the other post, if it really needs spelling out to you, those of us who live on islands would be justifiably annoyed should one of our schools stop a whole school beach trip on such a flimsy excuse.
My 7-year-old daughter is blond and fair skinned and I definitely use sunscreen for a day at the beach but otherwise don’t find it very necessary. Other kids have it slathered on every time they go to the playground in sunny weather. I’d rather she get vitamin D and an occasional slight burn than be afraid of the the sun.
“So, no one should have an opinion on this because it doesn’t affect American kids? Wow…”
Are you stupid? Honest question, because you got this exactly 180 degrees bass ackwards. American opinions on the subject are of no interest, because this is not an American school. It’s actually none of our damn business. (but, apparently, it IS totally the business of random people in the Commonwealth, or at least, the ones who live on islands.. Who knew?)
” those of us who live on islands would be justifiably annoyed should one of our schools stop a whole school beach trip”
And… has anybody on YOUR island done any such thing? No? Then I guess you are NOT “justifiably annoyed.” What’s that word that gets used here to describe people who take an inordinate interest in what other people are doing? You’re what, 12,000 miles or so away from the school that did this? And your argument is that it’s OK for you to be a busybody, because you live on an island, too? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
Again, the school made a decision governing it’s own management. It may be for the dumb reason stated, or it may be for entirely different reasons and they’re being disingenuous. Either way, they’ll answer to the parents of the children involved (if anyone) and to the rest of us not at all. Thus, the appropriate level of outrage (for Americans) is “meh”.
@James – should have known better than to engage, but thanks, had my laugh for the afternoon ☺.
“should have known better than to engage”
Yes, you should have. Now be careful, or my “American arrogance and ignorance” might decide that what happens on your islands are ALSO none of our business.
Have a nice day, anyway.
…England has sunshine??