School is out for a Brisbane primary school forced to shutdown on Friday after almost one-third of its students contracted influenza.

The outbreak at independent public school, Middle Park State School, in Brisbane’s south has prompted all students to stay home for the day after 182 children of the 600 students and 15-member staff school got the flu.

In a letter to parents, school principal Anne Kitchin said the Health Department had stressed the importance of keeping students home who had any influenza-like symptoms and student should remain absent from school until all symptoms seize.

“We urge parents to keep all students home tomorrow, Friday, 3 August,” the letter read.

The school has also cancelled a class 6 excursion to visit Centenary State High School today.

Ms Kitchin called the outbreak “extraordinary” in the letter to parents, stating the school would close to be cleaned for hygiene purposes.

“The school is taking additional preventative and precautionary measures to assist in managing this situation and will conduct additional hygienic cleaning of school premise over the coming days,” she said.

In a post on the school’s Facebook page on Thursday, the school said the outbreak included strains of nfluenza A and B.

The school also informed its Facebook followers influenza had hit the school’s surrounding suburbs “hard”.

“Be assured we are doing everything possible to deal with the issue such as sending information and exclusion periods,” the post read.

“We have also allocated extra hours to cleaning to deal with exterminating infectious germs. Lucky our staff is so diligent with dealing with these situations.”

Ms Kitchin said a handful of staff members would be on-hand at the school on Friday in the event parents could not make alternative arrangements for children.

In a statement, the Queensland Education Department told The New Daily the primary school had contacted the department about the suspected influenza outbreak affecting a large number of staff and students.

“Parents and caregivers have been informed of the situation,” the statement read.

“They are advised to keep children home and seek medical advice if they show any signs of illness.”

The department said “additional preventative and precautionary measures” had been taken to mange the “situation”, including additional hygienic cleaning at the school in the coming days.