The school was founded in 1973 as Harrogate Granby High School by the amalgamation of the original Harrogate High School with Granby Park County Secondary School. Both schools were established in the 1960s. The original Harrogate High School took its first pupils in September 1962 and the first headmaster, until retirement at the end of Easter 1963, was Tom Reginald Lupton. He was succeeded by Mr F.W. Kimber of Goole, who was assisted in the running of the school by deputy heads 'Amy' Mary Johnson and Jack Speak - the latter being succeeded on retirement by John Haslam. Mr F.W. Kimber taught German, whilst the two male deputies both took mathematics classes. When Mr F.W. Kimber arrived, the High School had 540 pupils and rising. The school, which had been built at a cost of £240,000, was formally opened upon the completion of building works on Friday 13 March 1964 by Alderman Hyman, chairman of the West Riding County Council, deputising for Sir Edward Boyle, Minister of Education. The latter, whose flight had been delayed by bad weather, paid a visit three months later when he praised the school, especially the 'admirable assembly hall', library and gymnasium, and "first-class headmaster with long Grammar School experience, and a very able and well-qualified staff". During the speech day and prize-giving at the school on 17 March 1965, Mr F.W. Kimber said:
"We headmasters... are as a race only too delighted to report excellent examination results, but this particular group of sixth form pupils, perhaps more than any that I have met, emphasise the hollowness of a mere recital of examination performance when this is dissociated from personal qualities and the wider aspects of educational maturity. Rarely have I known sixth form pupils who have shown such balanced interests and outlook and such a sense of social service and responsibility. They have moved on to university, colleges of advanced technology, teacher training colleges, and to commerce. They have set standards of service and responsibility, which I sincerely hope future generations of High School pupils will succeed in maintaining."
Granby Park County Secondary School was formed by the amalgamation of New Park Secondary School and Starbeck Secondary School, opening in September 1965. Granby was dropped from the current school's name only in September 2005. The new school took over the buildings and grounds of the neighbouring St. John Fisher Catholic High School, creating a 13-hectare campus bounded by residential housing to the west, the Harrogate Line to the north, Kingsley Drive to the south, and Kingsley Road to the east. The first head of the new school was Mr F. W. Kimber, previously head of the original Harrogate High School. At that time the school had over 2000 students on roll. The school now has around 600 students on roll. Its 2008 Ofsted Inspection Report found that the school is satisfactory with good capacity to improve. It also found that the extent to which learners make a positive contribution to the community, and adopt healthy lifestyles and safe practices, is good. In 2009, its pass rate for five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C was 99.3%. In 2010 the school was monitored by Ofsted who deemed the school to be "making good progress in making improvements and good progress in demonstrating a better capacity for sustained improvement." In December 2010 the actor and gay rights champion Sir Ian McKellen visited Harrogate High School as part of his national campaign to tackle homophobic discrimination and bullying in Britain’s schools. On 1 June 2012 Harrogate High School converted to an academy. Harrogate High School announced it is one of 261 schools nationwide to be chosen for the Priority School Building Programme. The new school was built in 2017. Harrogate Hockey Club, a club with a team in the National League of the English Hockey League have a clubhouse and artificial pitch located within the boundaries of the school.
Academic results
School 2012 examination results at A-level showed an overall pass rate of 92% shows 30% of pupils achieving the top grades of A- B, up 11% from 2011. Year 13 A2 students at Harrogate High School have achieved an overall pass rate of 96% with 39% of pupils achieving A*- B grades.
