Established in 1973, its buildings are now occupied by the North Oxfordshire Academy which replaced Drayton School in 2007.

The school made local headlines in 1982 when pupils staged a rooftop protest in response to a teachers' strike.

[citation needed] In December 1997, Drayton was put in Special Measures by Ofsted following a poor inspection.

Drayton was at the bottom of the league table for Oxfordshire, reaching an all-time low of 9% of pupils getting 5 or more A*-C grades in their GCSEs.

By 2001, weaknesses in the curriculum and in teaching and learning had been addressed and HMI judged the school to have improved enough to be removed from Special Measures.

However, in the face of opposition, due to the improved local reputation of the school, the County Council abandoned this proposal at an executive meeting in October 2003.

The council called for ‘a fuller, and hopefully more conclusive, report’ on the future of education in the Banbury area 'by early 2004'.

[citation needed] These included the formation of a joint campus with the local Oxford and Cherwell College.

The future of the school was once again perceived as being uncertain, which made Drayton less attractive for both prospective parents and teachers.

[citation needed] Students who had benefited from an improved quality of education in their lower years at the school, since their arrival in 2001, took their GCSEs.