It is ethnically diverse, with a mixture of Black and White English/Irish pupils.

The school is named after St Paul's Convent, and the headmistresses were nuns until 1998.

It was founded on 7 October 1908, from an earlier establishment based on Whittall Street.

In 2010 a new Maths and English building was constructed named 'The Sister Suite' in reference to the nuns who founded the school, certain rooms inside the building were named after notable Sisters in the school's history.

It has relatively high GCSE pass rates for similar schools in the Birmingham LEA and in England.