50.707°N 3.540°W / 50.707; -3.540

West Exe School is a coeducational secondary school located in Exeter, with a catchment area covering St Thomas, Alphington, and some parts of Exwick.

The origins of the school date back to the Victorian times, when the mergers of a number of smaller schools resulted in the creation in 1889 of two National Schools: one for boys at the end of Cowick Street, and another for infants and girls adjacent to Emmanuel Church on Okehampton Road.^[7] In 1900, when St Thomas became part of the city of Exeter, control of these schools moved to the Exeter School Board. The Board moved the boys' school to the bottom of Dunsford Road, and in 1917 the girls' school was destroyed by fire.^[8]

In 1921, the Dunsford Road Boys' School was renamed to the John Stocker School, after John Stocker, the recently retired chairman of the Education Board.^[9] In 1930 the boys' school was split into John Stocker Senior Boys' School and John Stocker Junior Boys' School, both of which still used the Dunsford Road site. The site on Cowick Street used by the boys' school until 1900 was taken over by a number of girls' and infants' schools that had previously been based in different locations around St Thomas, Redhills and Exwick.^{[citation needed]}

The schools were all merged into a single Boys' Secondary Modern School and Girls' Secondary Modern School in 1967,^{[citation needed]} and in 1972 the two were merged into a single comprehensive school. In 1973 the two halves of the newly united school started using a new site on Cowick Lane, being renamed to Exeter St Thomas High School under the headship of Bill Ridley, who was in post from 1973 until 1997.^{[citation needed]} Under new headteacher Steve Maddern the school was renamed to West Exe Technology College and a new school logo designed in 1998 to reflect its status as a specialist Technology College under the Government's Specialist Colleges programme. In 2005, a new school building was completed on the playing fields of the St Thomas High School and a new rugby field was built on top of the old building.^{[citation needed]}

Following the end of the Government's Specialist Colleges programme, the school was renamed to West Exe School in 2014, and a new logo was adopted. On 28 February 2018, it became an academy and joined the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, a Devon County Council report described the "unhealthy culture" and "weak governance" at West Exe. This report was mentioned in both the local newspaper and on the BBC's news website.^[10]

In June 2016, West Exe School made the headlines twice, first when a GCSE Computer Science exam was cancelled as a result of cheating on the part of a teacher.^[11] Secondly, a mother was taken to Exeter Magistrates Court after she removed her child from the school as a result of the poor anti-bullying policy, explaining to the court that she feared for her child's safety in the school.^[12]

In November 2016, the school was described by the local newspaper as "in the spotlight again" after a staff member reported that children were "running riot", referring to an incident in the school's canteen described by students as a "food fight".^[13]