The school was created for Clegg on the recommendation of Prof. Michael Sadler (who was to go on and found universities).

[6] The school recently had a new building built in 2005 and was visited by Gordon Brown on 10 November 2006 for the official opening.

[7] In September 2007, the school had to close for two days due to a water contamination of Legionnaire's disease.

Although the process was made more complex by the school's PFI arrangements, conversion took place in April 2011.

[9] Building on its specialism in Science, the school has developed expertise in Astronomy, and now offers the subject at a GCSE as well as through evening community and "family learning" events.

In July 2011 work began on building The Malcolm Parry Observatory, a project funded partly by The Wolfson Foundation, which was opened in 2012.