With the expansion of the school system following the 1944 Education Act, the church in Leicester set about with vigour to raise the required funds to open additional schools.English Martyrs was designed as a school for 300 and admitted its first pupils on 14th April 1964.

Delays in the building programme meant that in fact the first students of the ‘new’ school were educated at St Patrick’s School in Harrison Road. St Patrick’s was the first Catholic school since the reformation to be opened in Leicester by the Dominican Fathers in the nineteenth century. The land for English Martyrs cost £4,250 for 3.5 acres and the building £215,608, work commencing on 13th May 1963. To twenty-first century ears, this does not sound such a large sum for a new school, but it was a very considerable amount in the 1960s. Originally a plot of land further down Anstey Lane was identified but it was decided to sell this land for housing and the school was located instead on hillside farmland, giving it a prominent position at the top of the western ridge overlooking the city.  Mrs Gamble, our Librarian, still remembers the horse that used to graze on the land before the school was built! The architectural design was considered controversial and modernist. Emphasis was put on creating classrooms which were airy and light, with a feeling of "open plan".  Thus the corridors had glazed panels into all the classrooms and there was a sky bridge linking the school reception and library to the school hall which was above the gymnasium

The official opening of the school was performed by Bishop Edward Ellis on Tuesday 4th May 1965 followed by a reception by the Lord Mayor of Leicester, Alderman Kimberlin, OBE, one of the founding school governors. The school’s first Headteacher was Mr John Mulroy with Deputy Mr P Connolly. Mr Edward Brennan succeeded as Headmaster in 1966 and subsequent Heads have been Mr David McLean in 1983, Mrs Catherine Fields (Principal) 2002 and Mr Marius Carney 2007.