In 1973, a group of students, teachers and parents voluntarily met to establish the school to cater for educational needs they considered were not being met by the mainstream public education system in the Australian Capital Territory.

In 1980, the school moved to what was formerly the infants building at Ainslie School in Braddon (now the Ainslie Arts Centre), where it was co-located with the Questacon science centre.

[1] In 1995, the ACT Education Department conducted a review which recommended the School Without Walls be restructured, and in 1996 a pilot program was established, with a full parallel programme established at Dickson College in 1997.

[2] People who attended SWOW includes Tim Ferguson.

[3][4] Ned Manning spent a short time there as a teacher.