TWENTY-five per cent of pupils at Okehampton College were absent during last week through illness.

College principal Christopher Powell said the amount of pupils away from school — around 300 — was 'fairly exceptional'.

'There were one or two days last week when we had 25 per cent of the school population absent which is quite high,' he said.

'A lot of them have gone sick for a short time and been off again because they returned too early.'

Mr Powell said there had been several different viruses going around, but this week had seen an improvement in pupil numbers.