It was founded in 1938 as Preston Manor County Grammar School and its first headteacher was Mr W.P. Bannister. He remained headmaster until his death in 1963. It provided a traditional grammar school curriculum with science and languages streams. The school motto was "Munus prae jure" which may be translated as "Duty before right".
Preston Manor was amongst the first cohort of schools nationally to become a specialistScience College in 2002 with Mathematics as an additional specialism.
It has four local primary partner schools in the borough that it works with throughout the year as part of its specialist science community work.
Academy
The school converted to academy status in February 2013.
Expansion
As of September 2008 Preston Manor began admitting forty more students into its cohort. To facilitate this the school needed to expand. Work began in January 2008 on a £4.5 million project which will see a new teaching block and a 4 court sports hall built, amongst other new facilities.