Practitioners

‘Back to School’ Children’s Eye Health Campaign

Get involved

Getting involved with the children’s campaign is a great way to raise the profile of your practice locally and spread the word about the importance of children's eye health. There are many ways for you to get involved with this year’s campaign, from displaying the campaign poster in your practice window, to contacting your local media and giving school talks.

Resource pack

To help you, we have created a resource pack (in 'Document Downloads' below) which includes:

• Suggested text on children’s eye health for newsletter and magazine features
• Tips to generate local media coverage and key messages for you to refer to during an interview
• Ideas on photography and images to help promote your practice

Free campaign materials - which you can download at the bottom of this page - include:

• A new campaign poster which you can customize and print locally
• A press release template for you to personalise with your practice details and issue to your local media
• Guidance on giving school talks, including a Headteacher's letter suggesting a school talk on vision, a presentation with handouts for use in schools and a parent’s letter which you can personalise with your practice details
• A national register of volunteers for you to sign up to help with school talks
• A parent’s leaflet that you can personalise with your own practice details
• A presentation outlining the key issues around children's eye health aimed at parents and teachers 
• Two short films about children’s eye health which you can show in your practice
• A 'Top Tips' guide for examining children’s eyes and dispensing spectacles

Resources to help with school visits

Why not contact your local schools to see if you can speak in assembly or to individual classes about vision? We have created a template letter to send to Headteachers in your area - you can download this below.

Giving a school talk is a great way to raise the profile of your practice locally and spread the word about the importance of children's eye health. We have created a PowerPoint presentation with handouts that you can use in schools - see the document downloads below.

Before you go into a school, read our top tips guide to help you plan your talk. We have also created fun animal worksheets and answer sheets for you to give out to children.

Commenting on school talks, Polly Dulley, chair of the Children’s Eyecare Initiative, said: “I’ve been doing this myself for many years and can testify just how good this is for your profile in the community. It never ceases to amaze me how receptive both children and staff can be when I visit the school with a member of my team to talk about eyes. We’ve had a stall at Health Week in one school, had a ‘drop in for a chat’ session at an evening for new parents, as well as giving talks to individual classes to help them with their Key Stage 1 and 2 curriculum.”

Need any help?

If you need any help, do get in touch and we will do our best to support you. We are also keen to hear any feedback – so let us know how you get on and anything we can do to develop our campaign next year. Thank you.

The Association of Optometrists
On behalf of the Optical Confederation’s Children’s Campaign
Email: childrenseyecare@aop.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7549 2063 or 020 7549 2064.