George Washington Primary School closed for two days due to 'severe' illness outbreak

George Washington Primary School announced on Wednesday that the school would be closed yesterday and today due to an outbreak of illness across the school.

It comes after Academy 360, in Pennywell, shut for a second day yesterday after a ‘significant’ number of children fell ill with symptoms linked to the flu and norovirus – also known as the winter vomiting bug.

A letter was sent home with George Washington children on Wednesday afternoon and posted on the school’s website and Facebook page.

The letter said: “As you are aware, we have had a severe outbreak of illness in school this week. We have tried to manage this in school and have been undertaking detailed deep cleaning as far as possible at the end of every day as well as ensuring the children are washing their hands correctly and maintaining good hygiene.

“Throughout this time, we have been taking advice from Public Health England.

“Despite our best efforts, the number of children contracting the bug has continued to rise and today we have 22% of children absent with more being sent home during the day.

“We have therefore decided to close the school for two days to try to stop the continued spread of the illness and to allow us to deep clean the school more thoroughly over those two days.”

The school is expected to reopen on Monday, November 25, and parents are being asked not to send their children back to school until they have fully recovered.

Academy 360 was expected to reopen today, confirming a cleaning company had been at the site on Wednesday and yesterday.

Parents of students who are showing symptoms such as a fever, sore throat or vomiting are told not to let their child to return to school until they have fully recovered.

A second letter to parents by headteacher Rachel Donohue said: “I apologise for inconvenience this may cause however I am sure you understand the reasons for this closure.”