The school gained its Humanities Specialist status in 2003, a designation which enabled the building of the Language and Learning Zone (LLZ), a multi-media and Information and communication technologies suite situated at the western end of the Spring Grove building.

In recent years an ultra-modern Sixth Form Block resembling a barn was constructed on what used to be a hockey gravel pit.

At approximately 11:20pm on the evening of 3 September 1975, a 16-year-old schoolgirl named Lynne Weedon was hit over the head with a blunt object by an unidentified attacker in the 'School Walk' alleyway (also known as the 'Short Hedges'), which provides access to the school from the Great West Road.

[2][3][4] The electricity sub-station where she was found remains next to the School Walk alleyway, as does the original fence she was thrown over by her attacker.

The school has a good record of students attaining places on the Prime Minister's Global Fellowship programme.