The school was purpose-built in 1954 as one of the first comprehensive schools in the country, by the collaboration of two local educational establishments, Coventry Technical Secondary School a Grammar School and Templars School a Secondary Modern School It opened on the morning of 21 September 1954. Historic links to these two can be seen in The Woodlands School coat of arms. Pupils were aged between 11 and 18. It remained a boys school; girls went to the nearby Tile Hill Wood School.