In addition to the academic curriculum the schools includes drama, music, sport and a combined cadet force.

The Mayor of Bath and one of the members of parliament for Bath, Edward Ludwell, petitioned Edward VI for land previously owned by the priory, to establish the school, initially in Frog Lane (present-day New Bond St) then outside the city walls, to support ten poor people, which also prevented the crown from selling off the land previously held by the priory.

[4] The city corporation misappropriated the considerable funds from the land granted under Letters Patent, failing to maintain or improve the school until it was exposed in the Court of Chancery in 1734.

The junior school (7- to 11-year-olds) remained on the Broad Street site until the summer of 1990 (often mis-quoted as 1986, possibly due to errors originally made in an architectural report from the early 2000s and repeated by the local Planning Office) when it transferred to a new building in the North Road school grounds.

In 2005 there were plans to move the 'pre-preparatory' school, located in Weston, Bath, on to the North Road site.

The senior school opened a new building (B Block) in September 2008 which accommodates many of the major departments including Biology, Psychology and I.C.T.

The school opened its newest sporting facility, an all-weather pitch, in November 2016 by Rio Olympic gold medalist, Crista Cullen.

The drama department puts on a school play each year and recent performances have included Fiddler on the Roof and Pride and Prejudice.

Pupils, both girls and boys, may join the CCF from year 9 onwards and enjoy a range of activities each week developing skills which can be put into practice on a number of excursions, including multi-day CCF-run exercises on Army training grounds, as well as Combined Cadet Force and Army Cadet Force-run camps throughout the year, in each March, September, July and November.

[11] In 2019 the CCF formed a Corps of Drums, and since then has been taking cadets on ACF and CCF-run music training camps.

[12] The Cadet Force is one of the cadet forces which are involved in Bath's annual Remembrance Sunday ceremonies, involving attending the main ceremonial parade and a march through the city streets, which has since 2019 included performance by the Corps of Drums.

The school also produced two Olympians who represented Great Britain for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

In 2001, the school made national headlines after 26 pupils were taught the wrong Shakespeare play (Hamlet) in preparation for an A-level examination.