SICKNESS forced the closure of a second Swindon school within a week yesterday as more children went down with the flu.

East Wichel Primary School, a temporary school based at Croft, was shut after only four of its 13 pupils came in on Thursday.

A spokesman for Swindon Council said symptoms reported by the children included flu, vomiting and a general unwell feeling. He said the school was expected to reopen on Monday.

Meanwhile Grange Junior School in Stratton St Margaret reopened yesterday after being closed for a deep clean after pupils and staff contracted a rare flu-type.

The Adver reported on Wednesday that the illness had spread to five schools.

The schools were Grange Junior School, Colebrook Junior School, Colebrook Infants School, Seven Fields Primary School and Catherine Wayte School.

Samples taken from pupils attending two of the schools confirmed influenza type B – a rapidly spreading virus which, although a milder form of the flu, is rarer so young children are not immune to it.

Grange Junior School closed for 72 hours for a deep clean after it was found that 160 of its 323 children were suffering with the bug and a third of the 20 staff were also off sick.

It was the only one of the five schools forced to close because there was an outbreak of a separate vomiting bug at the same time.

The main symptoms reported were fevers, sore throats, runny noses and painful muscles.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) worked with the school to organise the deep clean and stop the spread of the illness.

As part of the cleaning efforts, the HPA advised the school to clean with a bleach product, steam clean carpets and soft furnishings, paying particular attention to door handles, sinks taps and toilets, ensure things are moved around when cleaning and thoroughly clean hard surfaces.

When the school reopened yesterday, 103 children were still off sick and eight members of staff were away.

Headteacher Christine Parkyn said: “Everyone isn’t back at the moment but we’ve reopened and we’ve made sure all hard surfaces and soft surfaces have been disinfected.

“Everything has been thoroughly cleaned but we are still making sure twice a day we do door handles around the school and children have been reminded about making sure they wash their hands and use tissues.

She added: “I’m really pleased that we’ve reopened, we just want everyone to be healthy in our school and be safe.”

A spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency said: “The most important public health message for parents who have children at the school is to keep children away from school until they have fully recovered.

“This will help stop the spread of infection.”