The school was founded in 1921 as Quarry Bank High School for Boys and its first intake of 225 pupils was on 11 January 1922.[1] The first headmaster of the school was R. F. Bailey (an old Etonian), who formed the school on the principles of public school houses. Subsequently, the first year boys' house was named Bailey.[1] The current headteacher is Lee Ratcliffe.[1]
In September 1967, Quarry Bank High School for Boys merged with neighbouring Calder High School for Girls (a girls' grammar school, also on Harthill Road) and nearby Morrison Boys' Secondary Modern, and adopted the name Quarry Bank Comprehensive School. The same year saw the abolition of the school's house system, whereby the pupils were divided between Mersey, Esmeduna, Wavertree, Sefton, Allerton, Childwall, Aigburth and Woolton houses.
In 1985, the school merged with Aigburth Vale High School, Aigburth, which led to the school operating at four sites with 1,800 pupils; it was also then that it adopted its current name. Aigburth Vale was previously a grammar school with around 600 girls. In 1989, the school divested itself of its Aigburth and Morrison facilities, retaining only the original Calder House and Quarry Bank estates. A new building to replace the Morrison wing was built within the existing school site. The former Morrison site is now home to a Tesco superstore on Mather Avenue in Allerton. The site of Aigburth Vale High School was redeveloped as flats.[1]
In 2001, the school underwent a major refurbishment as part of a Private Finance Initiative scheme. The entire site was overhauled, with the old Calder Wing largely demolished, leaving only Calder House which now houses the sixth form. A new Arts Wing was built to house the English, MFL, Arts and Music departments. The former Quarry Wing was divided into two separate buildings. One is Quarry House which houses the ICT and History departments, and the main office for the school. The main classroom core of the Quarry Wing is now known as the Science Wing and houses a large number of science labs. The school was awarded 'Specialist Science Status' in 2001, which allows it to provide first class science facilities for its pupils.
Front of Quarry House, part of Calderstones School, September 2012
John Lennon, rock musician, singer/songwriter, author and peace activist, and one of the founding members of The Beatles (Lennon named his first band The Quarrymen, after the school's original name)
Media related to Calderstones School at Wikimedia Commons
