The school owns extensive land next to New Road cricket ground across the river, used as sports pitches and fields.

On 7 December 1541, Henry VIII appointed the school's first headmaster, John Pether, by means of a letter to Richard Rich.

[5] One early headmaster, Henry Bright is mentioned in Thomas Fuller’s Worthies of England,[6] and is commemorated in Worcester Cathedral.

[citation needed] From 1945 to 1976, the school participated in the direct grant scheme, accepting pupils funded by central government on a competitive basis.

[7] The school has an artist-in-residence and actor-in-residence, provides one-to-one LAMDA tuition and has several performance venues, including the Keyes Building, College Hall and the John Moore Theatre.

[8][better source needed] The school produces three pupil-authored publications: Stepping Fourth (for the Fourth Forms, years 7–8), The Removes' Gazette (for the Removes, years 9–10) and Term Time a Sixth Form magazine, first published in summer 2010, as a replacement for the defunct King's Herald newspaper.

The King's Herald was an annual newspaper written, compiled and formatted in a single day and submitted to a national competition which it won three times.