Northcote High School was established in 1926 as a co-educational secondary school, one of the first six to be established in Melbourne by the Victorian Government. The school owes its establishment largely to agitation led by John Cain (senior), Northcote City Councillor and later Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Jika Jika, with support from the headmasters of nearby Northcote (Helen Street) Primary School and Wales Street Primary School. Cain's repeated efforts to establish a school to provide secondary education for the then predominantly working class suburb of Northcote were finally successful, despite an environment of opposition from conservative politicians and independent principals.