School forced to close over vomiting bug

CASTLEBRIDGE NS was forced to take the unusual step of sending students home and closing up on Friday after the school was gripped by a flu and vomiting bug.

While quite a few students had been absent during the week, the schoolyard and classrooms were much quieter than normal on Friday morning as only around 80 of the school’s 285 pupils arrived for class.

Principal Edward Lyons said that the whole community of Castlebridge was battling the dose and on the advice of the HSE they took the decision to close the school early, sending the children home at 12 noon on Friday. In the main, younger pupils were struck by the vomiting bug, with older children battling flu-like symptoms. A number were said to have ended up in A&E at Wexford General Hospital.

‘I’ve never seen any illness like this in all my 21 years here,’ Mr Lyons said. ‘It’s a bad strain of the winter vomiting bug.

‘It’s something that’s been doing the rounds around here and we’ve had quite a few children absent in the past week. Then on Friday around two thirds of the students were out, so the HSE took the decision to let the kids home at 12 o’clock as a precaution. I think a lot of parents had kept the kids home as a precaution anyway. In general these things tend to last 24 to 48 hours, so we’re hoping that we’ll be back to normal on Monday.’

Mr Lyons was in constant contact with the HSE throughout the week and was extremely grateful for their knowledge and support.

‘The HSE’s Public Health Department in Kilkenny were extremely helpful,’ he said. ‘They kept in contact with us throughout the whole ordeal and were extremely knowledgeable. It was on their advice that we decided to close the school early for health and safety reasons. The staff here, the teachers, cleaners and the SNAs, did a wonderful job helping to do a deep clean of the school in accordance with the advice of the HSE.’

Castlebridge NS opened as normal yesterday (Monday) morning, however, around half of the students were still absent.

‘We’re starting to get back on our feet slowly but surely,’ Mr Lyons said. ‘A school can lack atmosphere when there’s so many absent, but we’re hopeful that we’ll see a steady rise in the amount of students coming back to school as the week goes on.’

The HSE advises to check their website for further advice on the flu and vomiting bug.