A Tottenham school was forced to close for three days after a cyber attack knocked all its phones and IT systems offline.

The attack on Park View, in West Green Road, has been reported to the Metropolitan Police. 

Headteacher Andrew J Webster wrote to parents on Thursday, November 3, saying that the school was being “forced to close” for three days “due to a significant failure of all our school IT network and computer systems". 

“Currently, Park View has no working IT servers, internet access or desktop computers,” he wrote. 

“As all our systems (including catering, heating/hot water and our pupil and staff databases) are held on our servers, we have no choice but to shut. 

“Our phone systems are also all currently offline.” 

“We have informed the local authority and are working closely with them to mitigate its impact,” he wrote, adding that the school would reopen on Tuesday, November 8. 

The school has since reopened as planned, but remains uncontactable at its advertised telephone number.  

In a further letter to parents on Monday, November 7, Mr Webster revealed the cause of the outage. 

“On Thursday, we discovered and took immediate action to stop a cyber-attack on our IT systems,” he wrote. 

“All systems currently remain offline while our investigations continue and we have notified both the Metropolitan Police and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). 

“I have appointed expert, third-party consultants to review the nature and scale of this incident, while supporting us in getting up and running as soon as possible. 

“We understand that this news may be worrying, but ask that all our community remains calm while we assess the full extent of this incident. 

“As this is considered a crime, I will not be able to share more specific information until permitted to do so by the police investigators.” 

Park View, the Metropolitan Police, the ICO and Haringey Council have all been approached for comment. 

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