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.