The new county grammar school was opened by Sir James Mountford, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, on 24 March 1961.

A girls' grammar school was built on 14 acres (57,000 m2) of the former Colshaw Hall Farm, and situated on Dean Row Road.

[6] Officially, the school is no longer a Specialist Sports College, despite still being advertised as such.

This school was originally opened in 1965 on Thorngrove Road – the land now occupied by the A34 bypass.

[citation needed] The school operates the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and a bi-annual "World Challenge" expedition is available to older students, which for the last three years has been run through Camps International.