[3] Originally, it was a boarding school for girls only[4] and Anna Frances O'Hare Bentham was appointed the inaugural headmistress.

The earliest parts of the campus were designed by architect Irving Gill, responsible for a multitude of buildings in La Jolla.

Bishop's became co-educational after merging with the nearby San Miguel School in 1971 under the leadership of headmaster Philip Perkins, who served until retirement in 1974 when Dorothy Anne Williams was appointed headmistress.

[8] That same year, headmaster Michael Teitelman retired[9] and Aimeclaire Lambert Roche was appointed head of school.

[11] In 2018, longtime Bishops’ administrator Carol Barry was appointed interim head of school when Aimeclaire Lambert Roche retired.

[24][25][26][27] The Wall Street Journal recognized Bishop's in 2007 for its high matriculation rate to eight selective American colleges,[28] and CBS recognized the school in 2011 noting Bishop's had higher matriculation rates to east-coast selective colleges than Deerfield Academy.

The Dungeon is responsible for attending all of the athletic events and raising crowds of students to support their peers.

[43] The Bishop's School began offering advanced economics classes in 2015, with students placing in numerous local, state and national competitions.

The work product of the class relating to the consumer price index across income levels was presented to the Dallas Federal Reserve.

The Secretariat of the Bishop's MUN team also hosts an annual conference for other high schoolers, dubbed KnightsMUN, every December.

Noteworthy publications include: The school is known to have educated the children of famous executives and athletes, such as Steve Kerr (Coach of the Golden State Warriors),[47] Joseph Tsai (co-founder of Alibaba and owner of NBA’s Brooklyn Nets),[48] Ralph Whitworth (Chairman of Hewlett Packard),[49] Doug Manchester (American financier and former owner of The San Diego Union-Tribune),[50] Junior Seau (American football player).

[54][55][56] In 2018, the school appeared in Twentieth Century-Fox’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.