Three branches of Noah's Ark Nursery Schools, run by Dolphin School inBattersea, London, closed last Tuesday (5 May) following a diagnosis ofthe virus in two pupils at the school.
Dolphin, an independent primary school, said that the two children hadmild symptoms and were responding well to treatment. They had had closecontact with a previously confirmed case who had returned from theUS.
The school's board of governors decided to close the school as a'precautionary measure' because of Dolphin's close links with othersouth London schools.
The school said, 'The same rationale has been used in the closure ofNoah's Ark Nursery schools, which Dolphin runs. This time, it is as aresult of their close connection with Dolphin School, and the overlap ofsiblings and staff.'
Asquith Nurseries, which has four settings in south London, near to twoof the schools closed where cases had been diagnosed, said that a majorincident plan rehearsal was taking place, with a number of infectionlimitation processes at all settings.
Chris West, head of the major incident team, said controls had beenheightened at Asquith's Dulwich and Peckham nurseries because of theirproximity to Alleyn's and at the Battersea and Putney nurseries, whichare near to Dolphin School.
Action included restricting movement of staff between nurseries,stopping deliveries into any of the nurseries except for essentialmaintenance, and cancelling meetings where staff would come into contactwith staff members from other sites, so that effectively all sites werequarantined.
Asquith sent a text message to all parents last week, advising them ofthe incident plan.
Mr West said, 'One of our parents is attached to the Alleyn's school andboth the parent and our nursery manager agreed that the child wouldremain at home for the period of the school closure and their symptomsmonitored. When we advised all our Dulwich parents we offered them thechoice of either leaving their child at the nursery with all theprecautions in place, or taking their child home and we would not chargethem for the day.
'I am very pleased to say that both the parent and the child are stillextremely well.'
Hayley Mead, manager of a nursery in Hartlepool, said they had askedparents to let them know if they had travelled to Mexico or the UnitedStates recently.
The nursery has reviewed its infection control practices and made staffaware of symptoms to look out for, but had not received any specificinformation on infection control from the local authority.
Ms Mead said, 'I think there should be more advice for early yearssettings about what we should be doing. I think because there haven'tbeen any cases up here yet, parents don't seem to be worrying.'
- Lawyers Veale Wasbrough have provided specially-written guidance forNursery World about how to respond to the flu outbreak atwww.nurseryworld.co.uk.
Advice from the Health Protection Agency for schools can be downloadedat http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1241180226578.