Bovey Tracey Primary School will be closed for rest of the week following the outbreak of sickness and diarrhoea.

More than a fifth of the 294 pupils and six members of staff – including the head – have contracted the illness and the school was closed yesterday and today.

Now the decision has been made to close the school tomorrow as well. Parents have been informed.

In a letter to parents, headteacher Louise Prywata, deputy head Becky Forrest and joint chair of governors, Rebecca Cosgrave and Amber Macdonald, say: “The health and well-being of our children is obviously our absolute priority.

’We are undertaking a rigorous deep clean of the school to try to prevent further spread.

’In a school of our size, this is a lengthy process and so we have had to make the decision to close the school on Friday.

’The closure of our school is always a last resort. However, in this instance we feel that a robust response is needed to deal with this situation.

’In addition, and in order to be proactive in reducing any further risk of infection, we will be implementing continued deep cleaning when the school reopens and increasing routines such as hand washing in class to support this.

’For those children who are at home and unaffected by the virus, we will be emailing some suggestions for home learning. We plan to re-open on Monday.

’We would like to extend our thanks to everyone in our school community for their support during this time. We wish all those affected a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming the children back into school on Monday."