A SICKNESS outbreak has shut a South Cumbria school.

Flookburgh CE Primary School is closed tomorrow and on Tuesday as a very large number of pupils and staff became ill last week and the school is to be deep cleaned.

The school has given its parents information about norovirus, its symptoms and methods of treatment.

The school is to re-open on Wednesday.

In a letter to parents, headteacher Gill Pett wrote: "After consultation with the Health and Safety Team, including Public Health England, the decision has been taken to close the school for two days next week, Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th October to enable a deep clean of the whole school to take place. This will also ensure that any sickness that may be experienced by our children or members of staff will hopefully, have passed.

"A deep clean over the weekend is not possible as there has to be a period of at least 48 hours between the presence of an infected viral carrier on site and the arrival of the cleaning team."

Parents are advised to keep their children off school for at least 48 hours after the last bout of sickness has occurred to ensure that the spread of the sickness bug is stopped to ensure no-one else becomes ill.