A VIRAL outbreak among teachers at a Swindon secondary school has led to 400 children being sent home.
Youngsters in Years 7 and 8 at the 1,098-pupil Churchfields School in Salcombe Grove, Old Walcot, have been off school for two days because 20 of their teachers are off sick.
But students who have exams, such as those in Years 9, 10 and 11 studying for SATs and GCSEs, still had to attend lessons.
A dozen teachers are ill due to a flu epidemic and a further eight are suffering from other illnesses, which means nearly a third of the school's staff are absent.
Headteacher Steve Flavin said it was decided to keep the younger pupils off school.
"A large number of staff have gone down with upper respiratory tract infection. We think it is due to a virus," he said.
"Because so many staff were out ill we had to send two year groups home.
"We thought that was the best thing to do rather than make the situation more difficult.
"Staff were going home during the day on Monday and we had to make a decision at the end of the school day. We didn't take it lightly.
"We saw how many staff were going to be away and it just wasn't feasible to find cover for them all. We really had no other option.
"We needed to arrange cover for 20 staff which is a third of our staff so we decided to keep the students who have exams in school to make sure their education is not disrupted.
"We don't want staff coming in if they are going to spread the illness by coughing and sneezing.
"We do apologise to parents, we know it isn't ideal for them. But if we could have prevented it, we would have done so.
"All schools have situations like this whenever there is a flu epidemic."
He added that some Year 7 and 8 children were being taught in school if their parents couldn't make supervision arrangements for them.
Keith Defter, chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Heads and head of Commonweal School, said he had never heard of a situation like this before.
"These are clearly exceptional circumstances," he said.
"Logistically it would be extremely difficult to get that many core staff in such a short period of time but I know Mr Flavin's decision will not have been taken lightly.
"No school could plan for a situation where a third of your staff are off at one time."
Andrew Nye, head of Seven Fields School in Penhill, said there was a severe shortage of supply teachers for primary schools.
"It is more difficult for a primary school because we cannot send pupils home unless we are absolutely certain there is someone to look after them, and even then the younger children must be picked up by a parent or guardian," he said.
"We have very little sickness at my school but if we do we will get a supply teacher in or I will teach a class. It costs us a lot of money to hire supply staff, agencies usually demand £150 a day, and there are so few supply teachers in Swindon they tend to come from Bath or Bristol."
No one at Swindon education department was available to comment on the matter.
Although students at Churchfields may be enjoying time off because their teachers are sick, it is business as usual in other schools.
All of the secondary schools contacted by the Evening Advertiser said they had the usual number of staff off sick and had not been affected by a flu epidemic.
Greendown School and Highworth Warneford School said they had noticed no difference in the number of sick days taken by staff; Hreod Parkway School, Kingsdown School, and St Joseph's RC Comprehensive School, likewise reported no problems.
And Ridgeway School in Wroughton echoed the comments of other schools saying that there had been no unusual levels of sickness among staff or students.
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