PARENTS last night claimed they had been kept in the dark after a pupil at an Oxford school was diagnosed with swine flu.

It was confirmed on Saturday that a six-year-old girl had been treated for the illness after returning from a family holiday in Mexico.

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) said the youngster has now made a full recovery and is likely to return to Sandhills Primary School, in Terrett Avenue, later this week.

The youngster had been at school on Friday, April 24, and is thought to have fallen ill on the Saturday or Sunday.

But parents last night wanted to know why it had taken almost a week to learn about the girl’s condition after they received a letter from the school on Friday.

One mother, who declined to be named, was furious at the delay.

She said: “There are a lot of angry parents at the moment.

“There have been a lot of rumours going around, but nobody told us anything until Friday. That is just not acceptable.

“Without clear information you are just going to scare people.”

Another parent called the Oxford Mail and said she was “concerned” about the lack of information from the school.

She suggested some parents would keep their children away from lessons until they received more information from the headteacher, Stephanie Lovett.

The letter to parents said a pupil attending Sandhills School had tested positive for influenza (flu) A.

However, it did not make it clear it was the H1N1 strain — now commonly known as swine flu.

The PCT last night still refused to name the school, despite the Oxford Mail obtaining a copy of the school letter from a parent.

A spokesman said: “We are not giving details of the school.”

The trust stressed the child had not shown any swine flu symptoms during the one day she had been at school and would therefore not have been a risk to pupils and staff.

The spokesman added: “We have agreed that from a public health viewpoint, the child can go back to school. When this happens depends on the decisions of the family and the school.”

This morning, members of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and Oxfordshire County Council will be at the school to reassure parents and give advice on the illness.

But the county’s health bosses last night once again stressed the youngster had posed no risk to fellow staff and pupils and maintained they had acted appropriately Keith Mitchell, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We have worked very hard on this case and I know we have followed proper procedure and we are clear that the child in question has recovered from a flu condition.

“The council is working on this and the emergency planning team is having daily meetings on how to handle this, so it’s being handled properly and seriously.”

John Mitchell, a spokesman from the council’s children, young people and families department, insisted there was no need to close the school.

He said: “There is no reason at all why the school shouldn’t operate normally and the period the girl was at school, the other children were not exposed to any risk.”

Elsewhere across the UK, four schools have closed where pupils were diagnosed with swine flu and showed symptoms while in classes.

Last night the HPA said 27 people had contracted the illness in Britain.

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