THE winter flu bug has badly hit attendances at schools. Nearly 20% of pupils have been absent from some and teachers have been in short supply.

Hautes Capelles Primary head teacher Dave Boalch said the situation was ‘pretty bad’.

At the end of last week, nearly 60 of the 300 pupils in the junior department were off sick, as were 40 of the 240 infants.

‘Quite a few staff have been off as well and getting supply cover can be quite difficult,’ he said. ‘It’s not uncommon to make 20 phone calls before you find somebody who is available.’

Some supply teachers were on courses that were booked weeks in advance and schools tended to need their services all at the same time.

St Sampson’s Secondary deputy head Adrian King said 100 of the 550 pupils had been off sick on Monday along with five teachers.

Three teachers were off yesterday.

‘It’s very difficult because we have to ask our teachers to take classes for colleagues at a time when they should be preparing for lessons or marking books,’ he said.

‘But I don’t think we are the only the school suffering with a number off.’

The school would do all it could to stay open, he said, and he hoped the worst of the problem had passed.

Grammar School attendance administrator Davina Mansell said about 10% of pupils were off sick, which was not an extraordinary number for the time of year.

‘There seems to be two or three different viruses and they seem to be more virulent as people are off longer,’ she said.

St Martin’s Primary head teacher Cate Mason said a similar number of pupils were off there too.

‘It’s not reached epidemic level and the school nurse’s advice to parents who have children who are coughing and sneezing is to keep them at home until they are properly better,’ she said.

Castel Primary School had about 40 students off yesterday out of 350, compared to 50 last week. Four of the 17 teachers were also sick.

‘It doesn’t seem to be something that the children or teachers can shake off because they come back and then go away again,’ said head teacher Trevor Grayland.

Teachers had been very supportive and lessons were well planned so it was a question of working to that plan. Most of the time, children were able to carry on as normal with a supply teacher.

‘There is a supply list, but because everybody is ill at the same time, there are supply teachers who are ill too,’ said Mr Grayland.

‘You’ve just got to retain some kind of flexibility for as long as things are this way.’

Director of public health Dr David Jeffs said the local situation usually reflected what was happening in the UK.

The London-based Department of Public Health published regular warnings to general practices that gave the first indication when things were changing.

‘The most recent from last week said there was an increase in respiratory tract infections, especially in young people, but it was still within base limits for the time of year,’ he said.