The school was established in town centre buildings formerly occupied by Slough Secondary School in William Street (a site later occupied by the Slough campus of Thames Valley University) in about 1952. In 1958, the school moved to a purpose-built site on Northampton Avenue, occupying land that had (before the Second World War) been used as 'Timbertown', an area of temporary houses. The school has remained at Northampton Avenue, although for the 1988/89 academic year it temporarily moved to the site of the former Orchard Secondary Modern School while the permanent buildings were refurbished after damage to the roof in the storms of 1987.