Education chiefs have disclosed that thousands of teenagers could be awarded their GCSE and A-level grades without sitting exams.

Contingency plans to cope with large-scale school closures will be discussed tomorrow at an emergency meeting.

GCSE and A-level exams are due to start next week but five schools, including three in London, have already been closed after pupils fell ill with the H1N1 strain.

Six pupils aged 11 and 12 in Year 7 have tested positive for the virus at the private Alleyn's School, Dulwich.

Dolphin School in Battersea has also closed as a precautionary measure after two children, siblings of one of the sick pupils at Alleyn's, contracted the virus. One of the Alleyn's pupils visited the US during the Easter holidays.

All were responding well to treatment while another pupil, seven, was being tested as a further suspected case.

The third school to close was South Hampstead High School.

The Health Protection Agency ordered £13,437-a-year Alleyn's to close and issued all members of staff and the parents of every pupil with antiviral drug Tamiflu.

The Independent Schools Council has told its members to consider setting up quarantine rooms.

The HPA said shutting a school for at least a week was a precautionary measure when a contagious virus was "strongly suspected or confirmed."

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