One of five pupils to have been infected with swine flu by an 11-year-old classmate told today how it was like "a normal cold".

Sophie De Salis, 12, who attends Alleyn's School in Dulwich, was sent home on Wednesday with a high temperature. She was tested for the virus on Saturday and by yesterday was resting at home and feeling better.

She said: "I just felt like I had a cough and was under the weather. When I found out it was swine flu I was worried but really it just felt like a normal cold. I don't think it's anything to worry about."

Her mother Felicity was told by the school on Friday night about the swine flu outbreak. She said: "They swabbed all the children who had been ill that week but by the time the test was taken on Saturday Sophie was already feeling much better.

"We wouldn't have thought for a second that Sophie had swine flu. It was like any other illness."

Mrs De Salis said the family, including Sophie's father Nick and sisters Alex, 17, and Katie 14, who also go to Alleyn's, have not been tested for swine flu. "It's only the people who have shown symptoms who are getting swabbed," she said.

The father of another Alleyn's School pupil, who asked that she was not named, said she fell ill last week.

Francis Wyburd, 45, a self-employed marketing consultant from Herne Hill, said: "We don't know how she got ill. No one can quite work it out. The Health Protection Agency sent someone over on Saturday to take a swab. They then biked Tamiflu over to her.

"She is fine. She is in isolation in her bedroom at the moment. She's only got minor symptoms now."

The confirmed cases yesterday mean Alleyn's School will remain shut for seven days, leaving A-level and GCSE students unsure whether they can take their exams.

Alleyn's School headmaster Dr Colin Diggory said: "It was a difficult decision to close the school, particularly with public examinations in the pipeline.

"However, we are making contingency plans for those pupils due to take exams to minimise any inconvenience."

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