Slow the spread
Cleaning and hygiene regime
The flu virus can live on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours. In order to reduce the spread of the virus it maybe prudent to review your schools cleaning regime - this could include more regular cleaning of the following hard surfaces: door handles, taps, toilet flushes, desks and chairs.
By practising good hygiene everyone can play their part and help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including swine flu.
Got flu? Stay at home
School staff with symtpoms should not go to school and should not attend health settings such as GP surgeries or hospital A&E departments, but seek telephone advice by calling the NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or the national swine flu information line on 0800 1 513 513.
It is very important that if pupils have fever and flu-like symptoms they should stay at home. Pupils should not attend school and not mix with others outside the home if they have symptoms.
Communicate to staff and parents
We ask you to display notices and posters on your school's gates, toilets and notice boards. You can use the resources on the right hand side of this page or go to our useful documents page.
A template letter with advice for parents, carers and school staff (word) has been made available on 1 September 2009. We ask you to distribute this letter to all parents and carers of your pupils if this is necessary. Swine flu leaflets in Arabic, Farsi, Polish, Punjabi, Somali, Urdu and other languages are also available for you to download on the NHS website.
Please be reassured that most people and children will have a mild illness similar to normal seasonal flu, and will recover at home.
Those who do not have symptoms of flu can undertake their normal activities outside of the home as usual and return to school when their symptoms stop.
