From the design of the architect Richard Lane, a start was made in 1829 when the foundation stone was laid, and the school was opened in 1834.

Completed in 2005, the new multimillion-pound sports hall opened on the east side of the school grounds, and due to this increase in PE space, the school has converted the old girls' gym into the new whole-school restaurant, also this building was extended with a second floor mezzanine for the 6th form students.

Reflecting the strong Christian ethos of the school, Religious Studies continues to be compulsory taught subject for pupils at GCSE level.

Years ten and eleven Key Stage 4 involves work which leads to General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications.

Pupils must take the core subjects of Mathematics, English (Language and Literature), Science (Double or Triple), and R.S (Religious Studies).

In addition to these, pupils are given the option of four more subjects, one being a language and another being a Humanity, plus two extras which could be Drama Studies, Computer Science, Art (Fine Art, Photography or Textiles), Social Science, Child Development, Music, Physical Education, Business Studies, or one of several Design and Technology courses (Engineering, Product Design (both GCSE Design and Technology), Construction (Level 1/2 vocational course) or Food & Nutrition).

Should pupils stay on at Blue Coat in year 12, they will be required to choose 3 subjects to study for A-level and 1 for AS-Level.

The intensity of sixth-form is high, with a large amount of coursework expected in each subject, as well as exams at the end of each year.

The Blue Coat School has the most successful state Sixth Form Centre in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, from A/AS Level Results in 2007.

However the achievement gap between Bluecoat and other local schools is less-stark under the new contextual value added measures of absolute educational progress, introduced by the UK government.

In fact in 2008, Grange School in the town, achieved a higher level 2 CVA score than Blue Coat overall, despite having only a 28% GCSE pass rate compared with Bluecoat's 81%.

Senior students lead preparations for the Year 13 leavers prom, and also suggest charities the sixth form, subsequently decided through a ballet process, donate to.

Blue Coat’s policy, as a faith school, of religious selection for a portion of its pupils, means that children living in close proximity to the school, who apply to it, may not receive offers, with places assigned to students who live further away, but better meet the selection criteria.

Both Blue Coat and Crompton House CE School in Shaw have a consistent record of high achievement at GCSE and A-Level, in an area generally characterised by entrenched educational underachievement.

Both have received criticism, unrelated to performance, for their former Christian-only admissions policies, which meant non-Anglican families were excluded from the two best schools in the Oldham area on religious grounds.

This faith-based admissions policy proved controversial, and led to accusations that the predominantly white, Christian school was unrepresentative of the ethnic makeup of the local area.

Approximately 25% of Oldham's 250,000 strong population consists of Muslim families,[citation needed] the majority of which are originally of Pakistani and Bangladeshi extraction[11] These policies caused the school to be thrust uncomfortably into the glare and scrutiny of the media spotlight in the aftermath of the Oldham Riots, and the schools attracted criticism.

The Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis cited Blue Coat as an example of a school which has only a few non-white pupils despite being in a predominantly ethnic-minority area.