Schools of Exeter - St Luke's to Z

St Luke's Teacher Training College, Heavitree Road

Now part of the University of Exeter, St Luke's College started life in 1839 as a teacher training college in the Cathedral Close. It was created after a meeting in the Chapter House that led to the setting up of a Diocesan Board of Education, that consisted of 'the Bishop, the Dean and Chapter, and 150 of the nobility, clergy, and gentry of Devon and Cornwall'. The principal in 1850 was the Rev. George Martin BD, assisted by a master and a mistress.

In 1853, John Hayward (where would we be without John Hayward?) was commissioned to design purpose built premises for the college. It was complete in 1854 at a cost of £7,000, some of which was funded by the Acland's of Killerton. In 1911-12 James Jerman added some new buildings and enlarged the chapel. Again, expansion occurred in 1934-8, when the Haighton block was added.

The bombing of 1942 badly damaged much of the college, and the attached St Luke's School. In 1967, the modern giraffe house dining room and student bedrooms was added.

In 1978 the college became the School of Education, within the University of Exeter. In 1854 the college welcomed 40 students for training, while in the 1990s there were more than 700. For more photos of bomb damaged St Lukes see Swansborough Photo Essay

St Luke's Science & Sports College, Harts Lane

The history of St. Luke's High School began in 1873 when the Practising School of the Exeter Diocesan Teacher Training College admitted its first students. The school was a place to demonstrate the best current practice in teaching, and to provide a learning environment for the trainee teachers of the day. The Training College became St. Luke's College and the school, housed in the College grounds, became known as St. Luke's College School, in 1934.

In May 1942 the College was blitzed and the school's craft block gutted. In 1945 it became a Secondary Modern School.

The New School

The start of the Fifties saw most of Exeter's high schools rehoused in purpose built accommodation. In December 1948, H B Rowe, the City Architect for Exeter City Council produced plans for new school buildings for St Luke's at Ringswell Avenue. The school was designed for 450 boys. The orthogonal layout utilised a pre-cast concrete construction with architectural cast-stone details and brick outer walls. It was built on land that was in the 19th Century, the venue for the Heavitree Races, a point-to-point. Thousands would attend the 1½ mile course.

In 1953, the school moved to the new site at Ringswell Avenue, and was given the name Vincent Thompson High School after the Chairman of Governors, Alderman Vincent Thompson. The school became a comprehensive, along with all other Exeter schools in 1972. The last name change was in 1991 when the governors decided to return to the name associated with St Luke's College, St Luke's High School.

Another New School

The school was renamed St Luke's Science and Sports College when it moved to its new site at Harts Lane, during January 2006. The school also welcomed year 7 pupils for the first time as Exeter's secondary schools reverted to a more conventionsl 11 to 16 age range. Numbers have also grown from 480 to 900 pupils. The new complex includes extensive sports facilities and a purpose built access bridge over the B3181.

St Peter's Church of England High School, Quarry Lane

Hele's Grammar School for Boys had moved from its site in Hele Road in 1959 to Southam Farm, its former playing fields in Heavitree. In 1972, all Exeter High Schools were reorganised into a comprehensive system. Bishop Blackall Girls' Grammar School was merged in 1983 with Hele's Grammar School creating a co-educational comprehensive school at Southam Farm, and Bishop Blackall closed. The new school was named St Peter's Church of England High School and was for 12 to 16 year olds. The school gained recognition over the years for rugby.

In 2006 a new school will open in new buildings on the existing playing fields at Southam and the old school demolished to be used as playing fields. The new school will be for 11 to 16 year old pupils and specialise as a language college. This will end Exeter's schools' Middle School system.

The West of England School for Young People with Little or No Sight

In 1838, John Bacon with Mrs Sarah Friend called a meeting to establish a school for the blind in Exeter.
Mrs Friend had been aware of the need for such an institution after she had instructed six blind children on the gospels using the Lucas System. Initially named, The West of England Institute for the Instruction and Employment of the Blind, it was situated in a room, hired for the sum of 20 guineas per year, at the Athenaeum, Bedford Circus. The school was innovative for its time and the staff tried different methods of reading, and eventually adopted the use of stenographic characters and raised Roman capitals.

In 1840, the school moved to Paul Street after funds were raised by public donations. The school flourished as the city's blind were encouraged to attend by local doctors and clergymen. The first teacher to be employed earned 12 shillings (60 pence) per week, and basket-making and stocking-knitting were introduced activities. The Paul Street premises were soon outgrown, and the school moved, in 1843, to a donated house in St David's Hill. It was supported by subscriptions, donations and the pupils paying for their board. Whites Devonshire Directory lists Mrs Friend as the Superintendent in 1850, at a time when the school had 17 pupils learning to read and make baskets. In addition, they could learn music, mat making and worsted work. Other members of staff at this time were the Rev. W. Jackson as chaplain, the Rev. M. Tucker as secretary, and Mr. G.H. Harvey, as the honorary musical instructor. Mr. Dean and Susan Nicholls were teachers of basket work. Mrs Friend remained as Superintendent until her death in 1875.

Music was added to the curriculum and many pupils learnt to use a specially developed, raised music notation and some even went on to become piano tuners. In 1893, a school room was built at the St David's Hill site to accommodate 20 boys and 20 girls. This is now the St David's Hill Community Centre, although there are plans to develop the site for housing.

The 20th Century

By 1911, the numbers had risen to 70 children and 12 adults. The school continued to prosper and by 1930, there were 188 blind persons registered, of which 73 were elementary pupils, 8 technical pupils, 20 workshop employees, 50 home workers and 4 with other employment.

In 1944, after the Education Act required that the blind and partially sighted be educated separately, the blind children were transferred to the Bristol Blind School, and the St David's Hill school renamed the West of England School for the Partially Sighted. In 1965, the school moved to a site at Countess Wear that incorporated a Nursery, Main School, College and St David's House.

The non-maintained school and college for blind and partially sighted pupils now caters for pupils between the age of 2 to 19+ years. The school/college has weekly/termly boarding and day facilities, along with provision for young people with additional learning difficulties and disabilities.

West Exe Technology College  

The history of what appears to be one of Exeter's newer schools is quite complex and involves the merging of a whole range of Victorian schools in St Thomas, Exwick and Redhills. Two such schools were the National School at the end of Cowick Street and Barton Road, for boys, and one adjacent to Emmanuel Church in Okehampton Road, which dates from 1889, for infants and girls. In Victorian times, the school leaving age was fourteen so a child would often attend the same school through his or her school life. These two schools were the result of many amalgamations themselves.

In 1900, St Thomas became part of the city and its schools were transferred to the Exeter School Board. The Cowick Street Boys school was moved to a new site at the bottom of Dunsford Road, and the Cowick Street premises remained unused for several years. In 1917, the Okehampton Road Girls and Infants was destroyed by fire - the fire service was hampered in its attempts to douse the blaze because the River Exe was frozen over at the time. In 1921, the Dunsford Road Boys School was renamed the John Stocker School after the chairman of the Education Board, who had just retired after fifty years.

Another reorganisation in 1930, created the John Stocker Senior Boys and John Stocker Junior Boys, both at Dunsford Road; the St Thomas Senior Girls' in Union Street, the Montgomery Junior Girls' and Infants, the St Thomas Infants, Union Street and the Cowick St Infants in the reopened Cowick Street site.

In 1967, the John Stocker Secondary School was created and took over both the Junior and Senior Schools, and called the Boys' Secondary Modern School. Then in 1972, the Boys' Secondary Modern School amalgamated with the Girls Secondary Modern School which occupied a new site at Cowick Lane to create a new comprehensive high school. In 1973 the Boys' Secondary Modern School joined the girls at the Cowick Lane site, after some additional classrooms and other facilities were completed, and St Thomas High School was finally in existence.

The school has since been renamed West Exe Technology College and is in the process of having a completely new school built on the playing fields (2004/5) ready for Exeter's secondary school system changing to an 11 to 16 system.