An empty school which saw off its last students in 2019 has been the subject of debate, with calls to reopen the school and outrage at the site being used as a hit film spot for Netflix's Heartstopper.

Burnham E-ACT Academy officially opened in 2012, taking over from Burnham Upper School as a mixed school for 11 to 18-year-olds.

Sat on the border of Buckinghamshire and Slough, it attracted students from neighbouring areas and offered an alternative to locals who did not wish to attend Burnham Grammar School or were unable to get into the selective school.

However, from the beginning of the move to Academy status, Ofsted kept a careful eye on the school stating in a monitoring visit in December 2012 that the: "academy’s predecessor school was judged to be a school causing concern."

In January 2014 the school was stamped with a 'requires improvement' rating and in 2016 was judged as 'inadequate'.

During this time the number of pupils fell from 662 to 525.

Poor and "inconsistent" teaching was found at the school, along with bad behaviour and attendance.

Ofsted also stated in 2016: "Leaders have not taken effective action to improve the school."

The school was placed into special measures by the education watchdog.

Three monitoring visits took place in 2017 and 2018, all of which stated: "Leaders and managers are taking effective action towards the removal of special measures."

However, a damning Ofsted report in 2019 stated: "For too long, pupils at this school have not benefited from a good quality of education.

"The early signs of improvement made through the dedication of the new headteacher and his team in 2016 have been unsustainable.

"Staffing turbulence and shortages have led to a decline in standards and attendance.

"Many parents have lost faith in the school and are moving their children elsewhere."

This led to the school closing on August 31, 2019, with its 214 remaining students relocated to neighbouring schools.

Since then the school has stood empty and in May 2022 parents and villagers began to put pressure on Buckinghamshire Council to reopen the school.

A working group from the Burnham Parish Council now known as Burnham Needs A Secondary School was set up to demand the council open a ‘non-selective secondary school’ in the village to meet local needs.

They claim up to 70 per cent of Burnham’s teenagers have to travel to places such as Maidenhead and Slough to get an education where parents will have to fork out hundreds of pounds in transport costs.

Now four years after the school closed its doors, the campus sits empty with the comings and goings of film crews visiting the rugby fields as anger grows amongst the community.

In October Buckinghamshire Council responded to the campaign to reopen the school stating it is "not viable".

The unitary authority also appeared to admit that it is considering “selling” the site.

A Bucks Council official wrote: “In addition to our own data, recent information from the Department for Education shows that there are currently only 100-130 pupils in each year group who are resident in the Burnham area and are on roll with either a Buckinghamshire non-grammar school or a school in another local authority.

“This is unfortunately not enough to sustain a viable school, even if it could be guaranteed that they would all choose to attend a school in Burnham over one in a neighbouring area.”