The school opened in 1891. It was founded with endowments left by the Bristol-born merchant, philanthropist, slave trader and Member of Parliament, Edward Colston, and named after him. From 1945 to 1966 the school was a direct grant grammar school with an entrance exam. In 1966 it chose to become a selectiveindependent school until in September 2008 voluntarily converting to a state-funded Academy specialising in languages. This agreement was announced in July 2007 and sponsored by the Society of Merchant Venturers. In accord with the funding agreement, the admissions criteria are not based on how close pupils live to the school. A tenth of admissions are based on aptitude in a foreign language, and then priority is given to siblings of existing pupils. Most of the remaining places are allocated on a random basis to children who live in Bristol, with a quarter of places randomly allocated to applicants in the districts surrounding Bristol. The school mottos are; We cherish our history but look to the future, and Go and do thou likewise taken from the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. It is a multi-faith school. The school encourages the arts and sports, with teams entering competitions and tournaments across the country in sports such as athletics, hockey, and netball. An annual exhibition of the girls' art work is also displayed at Bristol Guild of Applied Art. In 2013 the agreed intake increased to 140 pupils, with a sixth form maximum of 180 pupils, from an original academy intake of 112 pupils with a 160 pupil sixth form. The school building was designed by William Venn Gough and dates from 1891. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building. In November 2017, after decades of debates, Colston's Girls' School announced that it was not going to drop the name of Colston because it was of “no benefit” to the school to do so.
Academic achievement
The school has improved its results almost year on year and achieved its best ever GCSE scores in 2011, the table below shows the percentage of students hitting the key measure of 5 A*-C including English and Mathematics.
In September 2012, a primary school known as the Dolphin School opened near the main site. It has around 30 pupils in each class from reception to Year 6. As of 2020, female pupils of the school have admissions priority over the normal random admission tier to Colston's Girls' School.
