SunSmart Hat Wearing Toolkit

Thank you for being a SunSmart champion at your school and part of Cancer Council SA’s vision for a cancer free future. This toolkit is designed to assist you, as your school’s champion, in the implementation of SunSmart hat-wearing—one of the five forms of best-practice sun protection.  

The number of young people diagnosed with melanoma is decreasing, and this reduction has been attributed to our sun protection efforts including the SunSmart Schools and Early Childhood Program. However, more can be done to enhance sun protection and normalise SunSmart hat-wearing in schools. 

SunSmart hats, such as broad-brimmed, bucket and legionnaire style hats, protect the face, back of the neck, and ears, and can reduce the amount of UV reaching the eyes by 50 per cent. Baseball caps and visors are not SunSmart as they leave parts of the face, neck and ears unprotected from the sun’s harmful UV. 

Ensuring all students wear a SunSmart hat can be a challenge. Cancer Council NSW has found that there are three areas that successful primary schools address, represented in the model below.

Every school is different and has unique challenges. What works in one school may not work in another and not every resource we’ve developed will be relevant for your school. 

The Toolkit is divided into three phases; Plan, Do and Review, and leads you through simple steps, with useful tips and resources to support you. It can be used at any stage of the hat-wearing journey, whether you’re looking to phase out baseball caps from the school uniform or reinforce current SunSmart hat-wearing behaviour. 

Read the SunSmart Hat-Wearing Champion’s Guide for an overview of each step. 

Click on the phases below to download the associated resources.