The school began as Willesden County School, on Uffington Road (off Doyle Gardens) in 1924 and the buildings were extended in 1932. In September 1940, a bomb destroyed four classrooms; a
V-1 flying bomb landed nearby in 1944 at the junction of Doyle Gardens and All Souls Avenue. Following the
Education Act 1944, it became Willesden County Grammar School in 1947; one of five grammar schools run by the Willesden Education Committee. one of five grammar schools run by the Willesden Education Committee. For one year in 1966 it became Willesden Grammar-Technical School when it amalgamated with Willesden School of Engineering in Goodson Road earlier known as Leopold Road Comprehensive. In September 1967, it joined with Pound Lane School on Pound Lane to become a comprehensive school known as Willesden High School. In 2003, it became one of the first three academies in England, with the aim of attempting to overcome educational underachievement in deprived areas. At the time, Willesden High School had some of the worst GCSE results in the UK. Former UK prime minister
Tony Blair opened the Academy.
Frank McCourt the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of
Angela's Ashes visited and signed copies of his books for the Gifted education group of students, reviewing the Carnegie Medal and Kate Greenaway Medal nominations of the year. In 2004, journalists
Polly Toynbee and David Walker went with some of the school's pupils on a visit to the
University of Oxford. Toynbee and Walker wrote about this in their book
Unjust Rewards (2008). They describe the difficulties that many pupils of the school would have getting to university because of growing up in poverty. ==HLAW in the media==