The facility enrolls students from grade 1–8, and serves the communities of Manassas, Haymarket, Bristow, Bull Run, Gainesville, and Nokesville.

The school is named after Philip Michael Pennington, a Prince William County police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1990.

[2] In September 2000, Pennington became the first traditional school of Prince William County.

Students must wear uniforms and follow a strict behavioral code, and both parents and students alike are required to get an amount of validated community service hours.

[3] Despite lacking a sports team, Pennington provides clubs such as Intramural and the Running Club to students who want to be involved in extracurricular physical activities, and a vast selection of other clubs such as Chess, Creative Writing, Foreign Language, Girl Scouts, Robotics Clubs, Muslim Student Association, Stitching Club, EDGE club, and Yearbook among others The school has gotten fairly positive reviews on Facebook (4/5)[4] and Great Schools (5/5)[5] from parents of Pennington students, while former students blast Pennington via Google (2/5).