St James' School  - Beacon Heath

This school is situated no where near its original starting point. In 1844, a National School was established at the back of Exeter's, St James Church. In 1871, a school for 150 infants was built at the front of the National School for the cost of £1,218 - in 1874, the infants became a Board School and existed in this form until 1906. October 1907, saw a new school built for 300 infants and 260 girls on the site of the demolished infant school. The National School for Boys was closed in 1929.

In 1927 the school became St James School, a senior school for girls, followed in April 1945 by a name change to the Girls' Secondary Modern School. The school remained on the old National School site until 1961, and was then transferred to a new, greenfield site in Beacon Lane.

Meanwhile, the Ladysmith Secondary School for Boys was closed in 1973, and amalgamated with the Girls' Secondary Modern School at the Beacon Heath site. Thus, the St James High School came into being as a comprehensive school. In common with all the other secondary schools in Exeter, St James' is having a new school built on its site (2004/5) under the PFI scheme, and will become part of a new 11 to 16 system, specialising in maths and computing. It was formally renamed St James in 2005, and the new school opened in March 2006.

The catchment area of the modern school includes Beacon Heath, Whipton, Stoke Hill, Mincinglake and, bizarrely, in a time of concern about travel and the environment, Exwick.