The earliest record of a school in Ilkley dates from 1575, with an examination of the religious beliefs of one Constantine Harrison, schoolmaster, by the church.

[2] On 2 January 1635, a group of townspeople signed an undertaking to erect a dedicated schoolhouse, and records indicate that by April 1637 such a thing had been built.

Its curriculum, according to a report by the Brougham Commission in 1829, was free tuition in reading English, and the teaching of writing and accounts for a small fee.

The fruition of the plans was slow; the site of the current school was purchased in 1881 for £2420, and by 1890 a proposed design for a building estimated to cost £6500 had been drawn up.

Building commenced in 1892; a headmaster - Frederick Swann, head of Chemistry and Physics at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, was appointed in April 1893, and the first boys were admitted in December of the same year.

It doubles as both sixth form area and classroom to teach about renewable energy with the power coming from a wind turbine and solar panels.

Further minor expansion was also completed in the summer of 2011 with the addition of two new English classrooms in the form of a 'portacabin' this was intended to ease overcrowding as the school intake is expected to continue to increase in the coming years.