Server malfunction closes St Bart's today

Update: St Bart's will be open tomorrow (March 7). The school said students will be expected in by 8.40am as normal and will complete a full day in school.

There will be a normal canteen service in operation. Information relating to exam arrangements can be found on the school's website.

St Bartholomew’s School in Newbury is closed today (Monday) due to a server malfunction.

The school, on Andover Road, said its phones, Wi-Fi, heating, school database, school network and canteen tills were all inoperable this morning.

Pupils went into school as normal this morning only to be registered and sent back home, sparking frustration among some parents.

However the school said registration was necessary so that it may be aware of and follow up any absences.

One parent said he was disappointed with the lack of organisation and said he expects the school to be prepared for such situations.

He said his son has already missed an "awful lot of his classes" and he hopes that the school will be open tomorrow.

St Bart’s is setting work for its students this afternoon via online portal Satchel:One.

It said every effort is being made to address the problem and is hopeful that it will be open as normal tomorrow (Tuesday).

The decision to close was both due to maintaining a standard of safety for pupils and a necessity to communicate with parents or emergency contacts should they need to.

A spokesperson said: “St Bart's would like to thank all students and parents for their patience and understanding this morning.

“The difficult decision to close was made because, in these exceptional circumstances, we felt we could not safely manage students on the school site.

“Maintaining a safe and controlled environment is paramount and safety is fundamentally compromised if we cannot access registers to record attendance accurately throughout the day.

“Safety is compromised too where we cannot access parental contact numbers or indeed where staff cannot communicate with each other via phone/email to share and address issues that emerge in the course of a school day.”

They added: “We recognise that this morning must have caused much disruption and inconvenience for students and parents.

“On safety grounds, we felt it better to register students before releasing them after they had received parental authorisation.

“This enabled us to be aware of and follow-up on any absences which is a core part of our safeguarding responsibilities.

“The decision to close was taken with reference to these safety issues alongside practical considerations around the absence of heating and food tills and the unavailability of network resources for teachers to deliver their lessons effectively.

“Once again, we would like to thank all students and parents for their support.”

St Bart's is aiming to provide an update by 4pm today and will share specific information regarding the GCSE dance and PE exams scheduled for tomorrow.