The £14,900 school opened on 29 October 1910 as the '''Long Eaton Higher Elementary School and Pupil Teachers' Centre'
on Tamworth Road''. The first headmaster was Samuel Clegg. The school was created for Clegg on the recommendation of
Prof. Michael Sadler (who was to go on and found universities). The school had a new building built in 2005 and was visited by
Gordon Brown on 10 November 2006 for the official opening. In September 2007, the school had to close for two days due to a water contamination of
Legionnaire's disease. In March 2020, like many schools in the
United Kingdom, the school closed its doors to everyone except those with parents as key workers due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Academy status The school consulted on conversion to Academy status as an Outstanding school, under the provisions of the Academies Act 2010, in the autumn of 2010. Although the process was made more complex by the school's PFI arrangements, conversion took place in April 2011. The Academy does not have a sponsor, and has retained the name The Long Eaton School. In 2016 the school was approved as an Academy sponsor, and created a multi-Academy Trust operating under the name The Northworthy Trust. In 2021, the school, along with the other schools in The Northworthy Trust, were transferred to Archway Learning Trust.
Observatory Building on its specialism in science, the school has developed expertise in astronomy, and used to offer the subject at GCSE level as well as through evening community and "family learning" events, which no longer take place following the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of two national programmes – Leading Space Education and Astroschools. In July 2011 work began on building The Malcolm Parry Observatory, a project funded partly by the
Wolfson Foundation, which was opened in 2012. ==Former teachers==