Eleven schools in the south of England took part in a trial of 'Safe in the
Sun', a curriculum programme for primary school aged pupils. Case study me
thodology and the 'draw and write' technique were combined to evaluate chan
ges in pupils' perceptions of the effects of the sun on their skin. Teacher
s were free to use the materials, consisting of a teacher's handbook and vi
deo, as they wished. Pupils in all schools showed higher levels of awarenes
s of sun-safety measures in post-intervention studies compared with the lev
els recorded 4 months earlier. Chi-square analysis revealed that those pupi
ls whose teachers had used the materials as recommended by the authors had
significant increases in awareness and knowledge about keeping safe in the
sun, compared with other levels of intervention, More pupils also appeared
able to transfer their awareness to the context of the school playground, a
lthough the differences were not significant for any level of intervention.
The discussion focuses on the value of the 'draw and write' technique as a
tool for illuminative evaluation, on the factors which contributed to the
pupils increased awareness of sun safety and on the importance of a whole s
chool approach to sun safety.