Summer will soon be here, bringing with it the temptation to play outdoors.

Sun hats and suncreams are commonplace in warm weather to protect youngsters against too much sun exposure, but, following the findings of a survey showing large numbers of children suffer sunburn at school, experts are now calling for sun safety to be a mandatory part of the school curriculum.

A report from charity alliance Skin Cancer UK (SCUK) is urging the Government and teachers to step up efforts to protect children from harmful levels of sun.

Richard Clifford, a leading member of SCUK, and trustee of the Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity, says: “Children who are over-exposed to the sun are storing up problems for the future.

“It is therefore imperative to encourage the use of sunscreens and sun protection to minimise their risk. Together with a shady area to play in and the wearing of hats, we would like to see provision made for teachers to take a role in the ‘common sense’ application and availability of sunscreens and protection.”

The SCUK report was commissioned by MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Skin.

It says: “Lives can be saved in the future with relatively little additional funding. School classrooms throughout the country must become the source of behavioural change – in the short-term, with the backing of governors and headteachers, and in the long-term, as a mandatory part of the school curriculum.”

The report also says schools should be obliged to have an ‘enforcable policy’ on sun safety based on national guidelines.

Malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, kills more than 2,000 people each year. In 2008, 11,767 new cases of malignant melanoma were diagnosed in the UK.

Five years ago, Dr Andrew Wright, consultant dermatologist at St Luke’s Hospital, Bradford, and his colleague Catherine Wheelhouse, a skin cancer nurse specialist, compiled Protect Your Little Sunbeams, a teaching aid to sun safety for four to nine-year-olds.

Dr Wright calls for sun safety to be a mandatory part of the school curriculum helps to heighten awareness, as by the time youngsters reach 18, they can have had three quarters of their lifetime’s accumulation of sunlight exposure.

Ralph Berry, Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for children and young people, supports efforts to help young people avoid getting skin cancer.

“This is the second-most common form of cancer in young people aged between 15 and 34, and the number of incidents is unusually high for a cancer that people associate with older age groups,” he says.

“It is therefore imperative that children learn from a young age that they need to protect themselves with a sun cream that blocks the harmful UV rays that cause skin cancer, even when it is cloudy.”

Louise Dale, headteacher of East Morton CE primary school, says the school already teaches sun safety as part of its PSE curriculum.

She says the school has also purchased covered seating and canopies to provide more shade in the playground and field, and has, in the past, altered playtime arrangements to avoid intensive sunshine.

“Although an important part of the school curriculum covered through PSE, I don’t believe that sun safety should be mandatory, as this suggests that it is then the responsibility of the school, and not of parents, to teach children about keeping safe in the sun,” she says.

“However, schools are responsible for children while they are in our care. It is important that schools do provide adequate shade on their playgrounds and reinforce sun safety messages. We already teach sun safety in school, encourage the children to wear hats and use suncream.

“We see home and school as a partnership and we support each other on issues such as this. Most of our parents cover their child with suncream before school and most children are able to top this up themselves during the school day where and when this is necessary.”