Cyber attack forces Nuneaton school to close as whole IT system 'taken down'

A Nuneaton school was shut today, Monday, January 5, due to a cyber attack. Higham Lane School was due to re-open after the Christmas break.

But a cyber attack at the weekend forced the Shanklin Drive-based school to remain closed today and tomorrow, January 6. In a message to parents and carers, the school said it hoped to re-open on Wednesday but there was no guarantee as the school as it had to re-open in a 'safe and controlled manner'.

The cyber attack had 'taken down' the whole school IT system, meaning it had no access to any digital services including telephones, emails, servers and the school’s management system. It was not yet clear if there had been any data breaches.

The school apologised to parents and carers who had been forced to arrange childcare for their children over the coming days. "In consultation with the Trust we have completed a risk assessment on the immediate impact from the ongoing cyber event taking into account the safeguarding and wellbeing of our pupils and staff," the message read.

"In order to support the restorations of the schools systems and gather evidence to prevent an incident happening like this again we have taken the difficult decision to close the school to all pupils and staff initially on Monday and Tuesday.

"We aim to reopen on the 7th however until we fully understand the scope of the work required I am unable to confirm this opening date at present. We will update you on Tuesday morning with further information relating to the incident and how we plan to reopen the school in a safe and controlled manner.

"I appreciate this will cause some problems for parents/carers with regards to childcare arrangements and apologise for any inconvenience but feel we have no option other than to take this course of action in order to preserve the integrity of the network.

"We will continue to assess the situation and update parents / carers as necessary. Communications will be sent out via MyEd communications system, school websites and social media accounts."

The secondary school is part of the Central England Academy Trust (CEAT). CoventryLive has contacted the trust for a .

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