The school opened on 8 September 1955 as Ashton Park Secondary Modern School, built in the grounds of Ashton Court.
Students come from primary schools including Ashton Gate, Hotwells, Southville, Compass Point, Hillcrest Primary School and Luckwell Primary.
The school has a sixth form centre which has some of the freedoms of college, but the support of a school, intended to prepare students for the next stage in their life. The school was formerly a specialist Sports College. Ashton Park has many extracurricular clubs for a wide variety of team sports, performing arts and sciences.
The 1950s teaching accommodation was demolished in 2009/2010 and replaced by a new 39-classroom teaching block which opened in September 2010. It is fitted with toilets on every floor (but not in the outlying blocks), CCTV, a recording studio for music students and specialist art classrooms and science labs. There is also a new canteen as well as the old one with a biometric system, so no money is exchanged at the counter.
Academic achievement
The table below shows the school's Progress 8 score.[1]