When the school was first established in the 1920s, parliamentarians referred to the founding vision as "a school for the benefit of the most isolated children, for example of lighthouse keepers and remote shepherds living upon small islands or in mountainous districts".

The same parliamentary debate on TCS also described it as "a school of last resort, ensuring that no matter where he lived every child should have as full an education as he was capable of achieving".

A $6 million annual deficit was corrected primarily through reducing the number of salaried staff – amongst other strategies.

Further to this, the school developed a Differentiated Services Model for its full-time students.

Further restructuring was undertaken at the end of 2007 when the school commenced the adoption of a more regionally focused model.