Cyberattack forces closure of Higham Lane school in Nuneaton

A cyberattack that struck over the weekend forced Higham Lane School in Nuneaton to remain closed on Monday, January 5, delaying its planned reopening after the Christmas break and disrupting classes for roughly 1,400 students, school officials confirmed.

Higham Lane School, located on Shanklin Drive, said the incident disabled its entire IT infrastructure, cutting off access to digital services including telephones, email, servers, and the school management system. The closure will remain in effect through Tuesday, January 6, as investigations and system restoration efforts continue. Administrators said the school is aiming to reopen on Wednesday, January 7, but emphasized that the date cannot yet be guaranteed.

In a message sent to parents and carers, school leaders said the decision to close was made after completing a risk assessment in consultation with the trust, focusing on the safeguarding and wellbeing of pupils and staff. The school said it must reopen only in a “safe and controlled manner” once the scope of the incident is fully understood.

The school acknowledged the disruption caused to families who must arrange childcare and apologized for the inconvenience, stating that the closure was necessary to preserve the integrity of the network and support restoration work while evidence is gathered to prevent a similar incident in the future. Officials said it is not yet clear whether any personal or sensitive data was compromised.

Higham Lane School is part of Central England Academy Trust, which said the closure was a precautionary measure while investigations are underway. The academy trust confirmed that steps are being taken to manage the incident and restore systems safely and as quickly as possible, and that relevant authorities have been notified.

The school said that as soon as staff became aware of the incident, incident response protocols were activated, including securing affected systems and engaging independent cybersecurity specialists to investigate. The school is also working closely with external agencies, including a Cyber Incident Response Team from the Department for Education, as well as IT experts from within the trust.

Parents were told that further updates will be provided on Tuesday morning. Until further notice, students and staff have been instructed not to log into any school systems, including Google Classroom and SharePoint. The school said that students who may have already accessed systems using their login details do not need to take any action, but should refrain from further access while investigations continue.