Christchurch’s Hillmorton High School closes for two days after rats chew through internet cable

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

A Christchurch high school opted to close for two days because its internet was down - prompting frustration from some parents.

Students at Hillmorton High School were told to learn from home for a second day on Tuesday, after it was discovered on Monday afternoon that rats had badly damaged a major fibre network cable.

On Tuesday evening, the school confirmed that all pupils could return on Wednesday.

An IT company had located the damaged cable on Tuesday and would install a temporary “work around” on Wednesday, but more substantial repairs would be needed for a long-term solution, principal Sam Ainsworth said.

Staff were first alerted to the problem early Monday morning as the servers were down and the school’s communications infrastructure was not working.

Ainsworth said this included wifi, wired connections, the student management system (including all emergency contact details, timetables, class rolls), the internal phone system and CCTV connection.

The call was made for students to learn from home, except for those needing supervision - year 7 and 8 classes - on Monday and Tuesday, as it was clear the problem would not be an easy fix, Ainsworth said.

Once the school’s network provider Network for learning (N4L) discovered the cable damage on Monday afternoon, Ainsworth made the decision to close the school for a second day - Tuesday - giving time for repairs.

“Health information is all on an online system, which is on the server which we can't access, so we've got emergency documents in place, but I just think it's safer overall rather than thinking of worst-case scenarios and not being able to get in contact with people or manage the school site.”

Some parents expressed frustration on community social media pages, with many calling the closure “ridiculous” or “concerning”.

“Surely they can take the roll the old fashioned way,” said one.

“Can’t teachers teach without internet anymore?” asked another.

“We buy stationery… but teachers cannot take roll or teach without internet… is this the new normal?”

Others defended the school saying it made sense considering the safety risks.

“If there was a fire there would be no notifications - no alarm bells, no system alerts to FENZ, no alerts at the office,” one said.

Ainsworth said he knew the decision would be frustrating for parents, but he felt it was the right call.

“I'll tell you it's not one that that we took lightly.

“When you’ve got nearly 1500 students, it’s just a danger if we went into an emergency situation, [not] being able to make contact with parents and being able to make contact with staff across the school.”

He said Covid-19 had shown it was possible to continue learning at home.

“…most of our students are on Google Classrooms or different online learning platforms where they do lots of their work anyway, so our teachers are going to be available for them throughout the day and can give any advice needed.”

Ainsworth said he didn’t know what protection from rats had been in place.

“[Tuesday] they're just going to run a brand new cable to get us up and running first and foremost, and then they're going to do a bit more investigation to find out exactly how it happened because it's only one cable, but it makes us feel a wee bit vulnerable.”

The Ministry of Education Regional Infrastructure Manager - Southern Simon Cruickshank said the local office has been in touch with Hillmorton High School.

“The school has already engaged with their IT provider and the cabling company who has repairs underway.”