The executive head teacher at a secondary school says it has now had five confirmed cases of coronavirus.

Simon Cox, of Westlands School in Sittingbourne, which is part of the Swale Academies Trust, confirmed the number of positive cases today.

Mr Cox said: "In all there have been five confirmed cases of Covid at Westlands School. This appears to reflect the increasing infection rates across Swale, although less than 10% of our pupil population are at home due to Covid related issues.

"Almost all of these of these are isolating merely as a precautionary measure and have no symptoms whatsoever."

He added: "The cases include two teachers, one of whom has now recovered, and three pupils, two from the same household.

"The school continues to liaise with the Local Health Protection Team, who are supportive of the measures we have in place, and we are communicating with parents on a daily basis. We wish all those who are ill at this time a speedy recovery."

News of a member of staff's positive Covid-19 test was communicated to parents in a letter from the school on Thursday last week.

The infected individual and one other member of staff who had been in close contact with them were told to self-isolate for 14 days.

Another letter, sent home on Tuesday, confirmed a Year 10 pupil had tested positive for the virus at the Westlands Avenue school.

The letter said: "We have been made aware of a Year 10 pupil in our school community who has tested positive for Covid-19.

"We know that you may find this concerning but we are continuing to monitor the situation and are working closely with Public Health England.

"As a precautionary measure, we have sent home any pupil who has been in close contact with the individual who has tested positive for coronavirus. This includes all pupils who have been in the same classroom as the individual, and those pupils who socialised with the pupil before/after school and at break and/or lunchtime.

"The children who have been in close contact with the individual who has tested positive for coronavirus have received a letter informing them that their child must stay at home for 14 days."

The school remains open and pupils should attend as normal if they are well and do not show any symptoms of the coronavirus.

These confirmed cases are just the latest positive results at one school, with a number of other outbreaks of varying size reported since pupils and staff returned to classrooms at the end of the summer.

A full list of schools that have been affected by coronavirus since reopening in September can be found here

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne