The school is split into three levels, the topmost one being the modern foreign languages block; the first floor being English, Languages, Science, Art, Food Technology and Graphics; and the ground floor containing Maths, History, Creative iMedia, Drama, Music, Geography, BTEC Tourism, Resistant Materials, PE and Religious Studies. The school has a Main Hall with a projected screen for presentations. The school has many areas to eat lunch, or to a have break. There are seating areas outside the Music, Maths, Design Technology and The Hub. The main areas to eat are the canteen where students can order food and sit there, outside the Hot and Cold Snack Bars, where there are numbers of seating, the DT quad, where students can sit outside and the main hall, where the large seats are pulled up to make space for dining tables, this means there are always places to sit. The Hub is a quiet place where any children with anxieties may go and sit at break and lunch times, with staff there to assist. The school contains a learning resource centre equipped with technology such as interactive whiteboards and computer systems. The school also has dedicated special needs previsions, with a pastoral care department and a separate section of the school, the Interactive Resources Unit, dedicated to assisting children with learning difficulties access mainstream education. Birley also has a Drama Studio with fully equipped lighting and sound and a large number of instruments and electronic musical equipment in the Music department.
Admissions
Courses available at Birley are: Maths, English, Science, single, double & triple awards), Food Preparation and Nutrition, Graphics, Creative iMedia, Art, Music, Drama, History, BTEC Sport Science, BTEC Travel And Tourism, Geography, and GCSE French.
In the 2010 Ofsted school inspection, the school achieved an overall 'Good'. In the 2015 Ofsted school inspection, the school received a 'Requires Improvement'.
It is the former Thornbridge School, the former Thornbridge Grammar School also known as Birley Thornbridge Grammar School. The first headmaster of Thornbridge Comprehensive School was Walter Snook.
Birley School
The school has connections with the village of :sw:Pwani Mchangani|Pwani Mchangani, Zanzibar. Birley Secondary Modern School existed in the 1960s. It was renamed The Birley Academy in 2017.
