Students at Higham Lane School in Nuneaton were sent home on Monday and Tuesday after a cyber incident took down the school’s IT systems, cutting access to phones, email, servers and its management system, the school said in a message to parents on its website.
KEY FACTS
- Incident Cyberattack disabled school IT systems
- Location Higham Lane School, Nuneaton, Warwickshire
- Affected systems Phones, email, servers and the management system were cut off
- Response Department for Education incident team and trust IT experts engaged
- Reopening Aim to reopen on Wednesday January 7 subject to recovery work
Phones, email, servers and the management system were inaccessible, forcing classrooms to close while investigations continue and recovery work proceeds.
A Cyber Incident Response Team from the Department for Education and IT experts from the Central England Academy Trust were engaged to investigate and resolve the issue.
The report instructs staff and students to keep well clear of school systems, including Google Classroom and SharePoint, until further notice. Pupils who had already logged in were advised not to worry while access remains locked.
A January 3 report set out that the school and sixth form appeared to have been a victim of a cyberattack and were unable to use any digital services. The incident has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR and the school will work with its local authority data protection officer on regulatory obligations.
WHY IT MATTERS
The closure highlights how dependent day to day schooling and exam preparation are on digital systems. Disruption to IT can force unscheduled shutdowns and shift study to external resources while recovery is underway.