The Northern Grid for learning has suffered from severe broadband service disruption.

Issues became apparent over the last few days as children returned to schools, BT had took on a £8.3 million contract in July to provide broadband services to the non-for-profit group.

The cause of the disruption has yet to be identified with BT having individually checked both the core network and individual networks, with no faults found.

A statement released by Northern Grid said that: “Despite these tests and intense scrutiny, we know that the experience of internet browsing for most schools has been poor, although a number of sites reported improvements from early afternoon”.