[citation needed] In 1589 Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Robert Somerscale to establish Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for boys, with the express purpose of providing an education in the classics and divinity for the sons of the emerging middle class in the town.

In 1940 both schools moved to the present Morton Terrace site, on which the local technical college was also based.

[4] Before amalgamation Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School had 4 houses: Cox (red), Elliott (white), Hickman (Blue) and Marshall (green).

This enabled the construction of a new sports hall, a two-storey teaching block and the refurbishment of College House.

[6][7] On 7 March 2014 the Sixth Form Centre was relocated to the 1872-built College House building, as the previous centre had become crowded[8][9][10] The school annually admits 180 students into Year 7 and 125 into Year 12; around 1000 students make up the lower school (of those aged 11–16) and another 250 make up the sixth-form (16–18).

Recent drama productions have included Return to the Forbidden Planet, Godspell and Disco Inferno.