A secondary school has provided an update on the progress made after falling victim to a "significant cyber attack" last month.

At the end of May, The Billericay School, in School Road, was forced to close for a day after a cyber attack resulted in the IT system becoming "compromised and inaccessible".

It was later revealed that the names, addresses, and personal information of pupils may have been accessed by criminals during the "significant cyber-attack".

Pupils have since returned to school, but recovery works are still ongoing and have forced teachers to resort to using "more traditional methods".

This week, The Billericay School sent a letter to parents to provide an update on the situation.

It stated: "There has been significant progress made in restoring access to our servers and to the computers in the school.

"The reimaging of computers to allow access to the school networks is a process that will take time and it may be a week or two before full access is restored for all.

"Teachers are working very hard to plan, prepare and deliver high-quality learning using more traditional methods that will be familiar to you from your time at school."

The letter also went on to state that "external companies" are working with the school to "restore the cashless catering system".

It added: "We are hopeful that our thumbprint system will be back in service shortly.

"In the meantime, staff are continuing to record all purchases manually and are using student expectation cards to verify their identities before confirming any purchase.

"When the system is back online, all of the items purchased and entered manually will be uploaded to the student's account."

In addition to the cyber attack, The Billericay School was also forced to close nine classrooms after suspected Raac was discovered in a block “missed in the initial survey".

The school has since confirmed that contractors are now on-site and have already completed the mitigation survey.

The letter adds: "Our site team have worked tirelessly to prepare the area for the mitigation work to begin on Monday.

"This will allow the minimum disruption to classroom accommodation at the start of the academic year.

"The mitigation project for the areas of the school that were originally identified as having RAAC is progressing well and we are aiming for the Science and English department classrooms to return to normal service for the start of September."

The Billericay School was unable to provide any further details on the cyber attack at this stage.