The school operated between 1909 and 1984.

The forerunner of Newlands School was originally the Workington Higher Grade or Higher Standard School, established in November 1894 by Workington School Board in Guard Street (formerly Wilson's Infants' School). It was a mixed school for pupils who had attained a certain level of education in the ordinary elementary schools.

In August 1912 it was divided into separate boys' and girls' departments. In 1918 the admission requirements of these schools were changed from educational standard to the attainment of age 12 years.

In 1924 a selective examination system was introduced and the schools were reorganised in August 1924 as Workington Central Boys' and Girls' Schools to provide a "higher and more advanced type of Elementary Education for those children whose parents agree to keep them at school until they are about 15 years of age so that they may complete a three years' course, but whose parents are not able to maintain them and pay fees form them at a Secondary School until they are 16 or 17 years of age".

In July 1932 the Central Schools moved to High Street. They became a mixed, non-selective, secondary modern school on 14 April 1947, which early in 1948 was renamed Newlands School. It closed as a mixed school on 21 July 1967 and reopened in September 1967 as a girls' school for the 11-16 age range, which it remained until its closure on 13 July 1984, in a reorganisation of secondary schooling.

[ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiF6vDD6J76AhXTnFwKHd8FB8oQFnoECAYQAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Farchiveweb.cumbria.gov.uk%2Fcalmview%2F&usg=AOvVaw1WN7qLRJa4mJjqorJy0Zdz ]