The school's motto is "Hic Patet Ingeniis Campus" which means Here is a place where you can develop your talents.

Cedarbrae Secondary School was granted by the then-Scarborough Board of Education in 1958 at a cost of over $3,500,000 on the hillside overlooking the site of Peter Secor's grist mill of 1830, on the west side of the Markham Road.

The building was built in 1959 opened for classes in September 1961 as Scarborough's seventh collegiate as well as the first composite hybrid academic and vocational high school.

The school is by area the largest in Scarborough consisting of 16 acres located on Markham Road, south of Lawrence Ave, north of Eglinton Ave and one of the largest schools by area in the former Scarborough Board of Education (the other being Woburn, David and Mary Thomson, Albert Campbell and Midland Avenue).

The 254,765-square-foot facility includes 48 conventional classrooms, eight science laboratories, a gymnasium which can be partitioned into three smaller gymnasiums, a pool, 2 automotive technology shops, 2 wood shops, a film studio, a fitness room and dance studio next to it, a cafeteria with a serving room on the southwestern side, 2 home economics classrooms, the main and guidance offices on the north, and a library (Howard R. Campbell Resource Centre).

Starting in grade 9, students will study in depth how the elements and principles of design are applied to various art forms.

Around 1:11 p.m., Toronto police received multiple reports of gunshots heard near the school at Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue East.