Mum's anger at school after three-year-old daughter sunburnt on school premises

Amber Ross, of Titchfield Common, was picked up by mum Stephanie, 24, last Tuesday from Jigsaw Pre-School in Locks Heath with ‘bright red’ sunburn across her back and shoulders.

Mrs Ross then got in touch with the pre-school, to be told that no sun cream was applied to Amber or any of the other children that day, despite temperatures reaching about 20C.

According to Mrs Ross, she was told that the pre-school’s policy was that the parents of every child would provide a named bottle of suncream so that if the children did play outside they would be able to do so safely.

Mrs Ross said: ‘The top half of Amber was severely burnt.

‘I was deeply upset about it all, and my husband Gareth and I were thinking to ourselves ‘‘how could we trust these people to look after our child after this’’?

‘I was very angry. It’s their job to make sure kids are all right to go out in the sun and the fact that none of them had suncream on them is very irresponsible.’

Amber had only been in the pre-school for just over a month after the family recently moved to the area. They chose it as it is near to St John the Baptist Church of England Primary School in Abshot Road, which Amber’s six-year-old brother Aiden attends.

Mrs Ross decided the best course of action was to take Amber out of the pre-school and is now on the lookout for a replacement in the area.

She added: ‘The school has since apologised to me about it and assured me that it was a mistake that would not happen again.

‘I’m more angry at the one person responsible rather than the whole pre-school.’

She said that the pre-school had informed her that the member of staff responsible for the lack of suncream applied to the children that day has been given a written warning.

‘We feel let down about it all as it’s not easy having to take Amber out of the pre-school when she was only just getting started,’ Mrs Ross added.

She said that Amber’s sunburn had since calmed down and that she was feeling better after the ordeal.

She said: ‘Amber’s okay now and understands what happened.

‘I spoke to some parents at the school about it, but I don’t think their children got burnt quite like Amber.’

The pre-school was contacted by The News, but is yet to provide a comment.