[7] The school was the setting for a seven-part Channel 4 reality TV show, Educating Essex.

[8] The show follows a group of GCSE pupils, and the staff who teach them, as they face the most important year in their education.

[9] The school was fitted with 65 fixed cameras – from the corridors to the canteen, and from the headteacher's office to the detention hall.

This was used alongside occasional standard filming by camera crews from September 2010 to August 2011 and edited into a seven-part series.

[8] In 2020, the school was aware of the need to support children and staff who had had family members die during the COVID-19 pandemic.