It opened as Worsley Wardley County Grammar School in September 1955 with just 69 boys and girls, rising to 500 by 1959, 650 in 1960, 750 in 1961, 800 in 1963 and 900 in 1965.

The school was located for the majority of its life in Mardale Avenue (off Ash Drive), Wardley, a locality west of Swinton, in the county of Lancashire - later Greater Manchester, in the parish of All Saints', Wardley.

The other two went to the St Ambrose Barlow RC High School.

The Mardale Avenue building is now demolished, with St. Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic High School occupying the old school grounds.

Wardley Grange Farm is next to the school site.