The school has been called "the brainchild of Tony Fernandes", a Malaysian business magnate who had been educated at the original Epsom College in England.

[3] Fernandes gained the support of the head of the English Epsom College, Stephen Borthwick, who also played a leading role in the creation of the school.

Borthwick announced the project in December 2009, stating that the new school would follow a British curriculum and teach about 900 children between the ages of eleven and eighteen, mostly boarders.

[9] In December 2014, Boris Johnson visited the school for its opening ceremony, joining Tunku Ali Redhauddin, eldest son of the Yamtuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Victoria Treadell, and Tony Fernandes, who was the first Chairman of the Governing Body.

[13] In the prep school (for children aged three to eleven) there is a broad range of subjects, which include English, Mandarin, mathematics, computing, science and technology, art and design, music, and physical education.

[15] In July 2020, the charitable ECiM Libra Foundation announced that it would be awarding twenty full and thirty partial scholarships to Malaysian students to pursue either an A-Level or an International General Certificate of Secondary Education programme at the school,[16] and in December said that the year's application process was about to close.