At the time of its September 2012 Ofsted inspection, the school had 1175[3] pupils (male and female) on roll aged 11–18, with 215 in the sixth form.

[citation needed] Dalrymple-Alford left the school in January 2006, being replaced by Dr Ramsey Tetlow.

[11] Commonly described as pseudoscience, physician Ben Goldacre has described the programme as 'ludicrous' while Teacher of the Year award-winner Philip Beadle described it as 'moonshine...you'd probably get as much benefit from taking a Brain Gym book and booting it around the room'.

[1] Sixth form students have no set uniform but have to stick to a dress code defined as 'smart office wear'.

[15] The building used to be the site of Charles White Secondary Modern School but was converted in 1982 (See history).

[26] Subsequently, a September 2012 follow-up inspection found the school to have improved markedly, achieving a 'good' (grade 2) for the first time in over 6 years.

The study led to collaborations with dissimilar schools in Derby that were funded by an interested company.

[27] On 24 November 2010, Highfields students staged a demonstration as part of a nationwide student protest day against the government's scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance and decision to raise the cap on university tuition fees.

Up to 300 students walked out of classes and marched, escorted by police, first to the Local Education Authority headquarters at County Hall and then onto Matlock town centre.

[28] The school's Physical Education department was presented with the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service – the equivalent to an MBE for organisations – in June 2010 by HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, accompanied by Olympic badminton player Donna Kellogg, for its 'Sports Leadership Academy', co-ordinated by Jayne Allen.