The school was formed on 1 September 2008 when two middle schools on Wellington Road, Archbishop King Catholic Middle and Trinity Church of England Middle merged. This was done in line with the education reforms that were being implemented to schools across the island at the time. The desire to expand beyond the then-current age range of 9–13 years was first registered in December 2004, shortly after a new headteacher, Pat Goodhead, was appointed. In 2006, after "outstanding" Ofsted inspections for Trinity, and the need for a new headteacher for Archbishop King, a joint governing body committee was formed and Goodhead was appointed headteacher of both Trinity and Archbishop King. Amalgamation of the two schools moved on as there were positive responses from all involved, including clergy, parents and staff, which was confirmed during an official review. The schools were fully amalgamated in September 2008, resulting in the closure of Trinity and Archbishop King middle schools. Following the new launch, an opening ceremony was held in October 2008. In the college's first academic year, it accommodated the original age ranges that the two middle schools had before. The next year, the school increased their range to include year 9. Years 5 and 6 were removed from the school's range in the following two years. Each year, higher age ranges were progressively accommodated at the school. By the academic year 2013–2014, the school had reached its goal to become a secondary school and sixth form. It was unique in the United Kingdom in accommodating these age ranges, a reflection of its changing status from middle to secondary school.
Site
The college was based on two separate campuses, each in close proximity to each other on Wellington road. One accommodated years 7 and 8, known as "Lower College", and the other accommodated years 9 to 11 and the sixth form, known as "Upper College". However, since the construction of a new state of the art school building the entire school is housed on the previous Upper College site, while Lower College has been converted into playing fields and a bus bay. As part of the college's previous expansion plans, deliveries of new temporary classrooms to include Science, Art and Design and Technology facilities were made. In addition, a multi-use games area was put in place on the lower field of the Upper College site, which replaced the playground on which the new sports hall temporarily stood. All of these have since been removed following the rebuild, and a new MUGA was put in place on the site of the old temporary sports hall. After a relatively long delay, construction for the new sixth form accommodation was completed by September 2013, taking only just 25 weeks. Funding was also secured by the college for a complete rebuild as part of the Government's Priority Schools Building Programme.
In September 2013 it was announced that the principal of the college, Goodhead, was to be presented with a Papal Honour for her services to the Catholic Church in education. The award was presented by Egan on 11 December 2013 during the opening service for the sixth form. Goodhead was subsequently also made a Dame of the Papal Equestrian Order of Saint Gregory the Great.
Examination and inspection results
The 2012 pass rates for the school, in its first year of results, were 77.1% 5+ A*-C including English and Maths for GCSE. Ofsted inspectors visited the college in April 2014, with Goodhead saying that she was proud of the results. Stating that "Goodhead, governors and key leaders were relentless in their drive for excellence", the school showed examples of outstanding practice. They also praised the college's sixth form, stating it was good and preparing students well for the future. Ofsted inspectors said that to improve, the students' work needed to be "more consistent", with them staying focused in classes. However, Ofsted rated it as "good" overall, a high achievement for a newly opened school, commenting it was "knocking on the door of outstanding".
