Pupils at a Durham school one of the worst-hit by RAAC anywhere in the country have been left doing redoing coursework days before exams after their work was lost in an IT failure.

St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham City was plunged into crisis in September when buildings were found to be riddled with crumbling reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

It was one of just two secondary schools in England forced to completely close due to the scandal.

Now A-Level students due to sit exams in the coming days have been left redoing coursework when parents say they should be revising after an “unforeseen failure” on the server where their work had been stored saw files corrupted and lost.

The school says it was unable to directly rectify the server issue because of where IT equipment was housed in a part of the campus affected by RAAC.

It comes after months of students learning in temporary classrooms, spells online, and missed lessons due to RAAC. Parents and politicians including Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy have also been campaigning the Government for pupils to get special consideration in exams to no avail.

One parent, who wishes to stay anonymous, says her final-year daughter due to sit her exams imminently was having to re-do coursework as late as last week.

“She should be revising,” the mum said.

“The school told us in January that the home drive for sixth form students had caught a virus. Then in March, we found out that the files couldn’t be retrieved so they had to reproduce the lost coursework.

“My daughter is having to do this weeks before her exams when she should be revising.

“You would imagine they would have a backup. My workplace backs up everything, it’s quite normal for any business.

“They were told to go away and look on any flash drives or the cloud in case they had older versions uploaded, even though the school had told them to only use the serve that had been lost.

“Why should these young adults have to then re-do work, find old files, and do everything themselves to try and get to the finish line.

“These grades really matter to her, why should an IT issue on top of the RAAC affect whether she can get a job or go on to what she wants to do?

“The RAAC issue has been particularly bad. When they started they were getting bussed up to Washington and missing a couple of hours out of the day, then they’ve had to try and catch up.

“There has never been any rest time for them. It has been terrible.”

The school told this newspaper the issue affected a “small number” of students who they are “proactively supporting”.

A spokesperson said: “In January, our school experienced an unforeseen server failure and due to its location in a RAAC-affected area we were unable to rectify it directly. This server housed coursework files, and while we promptly set up new IT facilities, some files were found corrupted upon retrieval. This issue impacted a small number of A Level students.

“We have proactively supported the students affected by offering intensive catch-up sessions in small groups, ensuring as little disadvantage as possible.

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“Throughout this process, we have kept the exam boards fully informed, and extensions have been offered.”

A report previously suggested disruption at St Leonard’s had been so bad to justify a 10% bump to exam marks this summer.

But in January the Department for Education said no special dispensation would be given.

There were, and still are, fears the RAAC-induced chaos will cause pupils to miss university spots, receive lower grades and face greater stress and mental health woes.

Students previously told how there was no space for independent study and how they couldn’t hear teachers in temporary classes set up in sport halls.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the decision not to intervene with results was correct, on a visit to Teesside University back in February.