As a full school, it comprises a primary section offering a six-year programme leading up to the Primary School Leaving Examination, as well as a secondary section offering a four-year programme leading up to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations.

[5] On 22 October 1966, Maris Stella High School moved into a permanent campus at Mount Vernon Road.

A designated three-storey school building was built and opened in 1987, and that year, in order to cope with its large student population, the primary and secondary sections were split into independently functioning entities.

The first batch of nine schools, including Maris Stella High, welcomed its first full cohort of Special Stream students in 1979.

[9] In line with the Ministry of Education's bilingualism policy of the late 1970s, the school introduced English-speaking days and requested students to speak English during assemblies.

[10] In 2002, Maris Stella High School was designated as a Cluster Centre of Excellence for Information and Communication Technology (ICT).