The School is named after the Bishop Cotton of Calcutta.

Bishop Cottons Boys' School was established on April 19, 1865 by Rev. S. T. Pettigrew.

The School started as a co-educational institute. However, a separate school for girls, Bishop Cotton Girls School, was founded later.

The Medium of instruction is English. The students can opt for ISC (Std XII) after ICSE ( Std X).

The school offers

Indian Certificate Of Secondary Education (I.C.S.E)

Examination is held at the end of Standard X, conducted by Council for the Indian School Certification Examination, New Delhi.

Subjects in Standard X are:

English
Second Language - Hindi or Kannada or Tamil or French
Mathematics
History, Civics and Geography
Science - Biology, Chemistry and Physics
One optional subject - Accountancy/ Commerce/ Computer Science/ Economics/ Environmental Science/ Physical Education

Indian School Certificate ( I.S.C)

Examination is held at the end of Standard XII, conducted by Council for the Indian School Certification Examination, New Delhi.

Subjects in Standard XII are:

English
Second Language - Hindi, Kannada, Tamil , Malayalam.
A modern Foreign Language

The students can opt for Science or Commerce Group.

Science Group
Any one of Biology / Electricity & Electronics / Computer Science
Chemistry
Mathematics
Physics

Commerce Group
Economics
Principles of Accounts
Structure of Commerce
Any one of - Business mathematics/Structure of Modern Government/Computer Science

The motto of the School is "Nec Dextrorsum Nec Sinistrorsum".

According to the Cottonian magazine of 1910, the school was divided into 6 'Puchi' (meaning flies) teams - Jerrimangalams, Bloodsuckers, Scorpions, White ants and Cobras.

New houses were formed in 1933 by combining the Scorpions & Cobras as Pettigrew House, the White ants & Jerrimangalams as Pope House, the Blood suckers & Mosquitos as Pakenham-Walsh House. In 1956, a fourth house called the Elphick House was added.