School facing 'critical incident' after cyber attack

The Billericay School says it was targeted during the half-term holiday

A school has declared a "significant critical incident" after it was targeted in a cyber-attack.

The Billericay School in Essex said its systems were compromised during the half-term holiday.

In a letter to parents, head teacher Patrick Berry said the attack occurred despite "industry standard firewalls, firmware and malware security" in place.

"The situation as it stands is significantly affecting our ability to operate the school safely and effectively," he wrote.

Mr Berry added: "This attack has resulted in all of the school IT system being compromised and inaccessible by a complex encryption."

The head teacher said IT staff had made "significant progress" in resolving the issue.

He said the school would be closed to pupils in Year 7, 8, 9 and 12 on Monday so staff could prepare lessons while they did not have access to their resources on the system.

The incident followed a BBC report which revealed 347 cyber incidents were reported in the education and childcare sector in 2023 - an increase of 55% on 2022.

Government data suggested most schools and colleges have identified a cyber-security breach in the past year.

Some told the BBC it led to temporary closures and weeks of disruption.