At Trentham Academy, a large secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent, the swimming pool is barricaded with danger signs, while the heating system has remained broken during recent mock exams.
"It was hard to concentrate," student Esme says. "I couldn't stop myself from shivering while I was trying to breathe and to calm myself down while I was trying to do the exam."
This is one of 88 schools in the area that were maintained as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, signed by the city council 25 years ago.
These contracts pay private companies to maintain buildings in return for being allowed to generate profits.
The contract in Stoke-on-Trent is one of the largest of around 660 similar contracts across the UK, most of which were signed under a previous Labour government, and is among the first to come to an end.