Bude secondary school reopens following flu outbreak

A school has reopened following a two-day closure last week due to an outbreak of flu and streptococcus infection.

Budehaven Community School, in Bude, Cornwall, said it had to suspend in-person learning for two days last week after more than 270 pupils and 32 members of staff were off sick.

Head teacher Dominic Wilkes said the decision to close was not taken lightly and was made in consultation with others.

He said the school had now reopened but the situation was being kept under review.

“We are monitoring the situation minute by minute but it is a case of the school being open and turn up if you are well enough,” he said.

“It was a decision made in conjunction with other people, it is really important that we consult with others and everyone unanimously agreed that the closure was the right thing to do.”

He added: “We’ve had a lot of support and I’d like to thank parents, carers, pupils, staff and anybody else who has supported us in that decision.

“We do really encourage good attendance at school, but if you’re not well enough to be in then the advice is that you just need to recover.”

Ruth Goldstein, deputy director of public health at Cornwall Council, said: “The thing with flu is that is incredibly easy to catch if you are a group of people that are close together in a school.

“Our advice to everybody is that if you do have signs of flu, you need to take yourself out of circulation for a few days.

“This year all children at school and two and three year olds were all invited to have their vaccinations, it is absolutely worthwhile.”