Queen Elizabeth's School is an academy school in Crediton, Devon.and serves over 1600 students, It was formed as a comprehensive school in the early 1970s by a merger of The Shelley Secondary Modern with the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School. The grammar school was founded in 1547 and started teaching in 1572 with 10 pupils. The grammar school moved to new buildings in 1861, merged with the girls high school in 1966. The college now serves over 1600 school pupils, as well as offering education and facilities to the wider public. Along with being a secondary school of good standing, Queen Elizabeth's also has a sixth form, for students wishing to extend their education past year 11. In the 2015 Ofsted review of the school, the school was rated as "Good". Queen Elizabeth's is known for its excellence in the fields of performing arts such as music and drama. Each year a play or musical is held by the drama and music departments, with the set decorated by members of the art department staff, and have regularly achieved good feedback. The QE Jazz Band regularly performs locally tours abroad. The college has 13 partner primary schools, of which it is usual that the pupils from said schools continue their education at Queen Elizabeth's past the age of 11. The college's coat of arms shows prominently the figure of Saint Boniface, the patron saint of the town and the most famous person to have ever been born and raised there. For years the college management has been wishing to amalgamate the two parts of the school- Lower, and Upper, into a single-site college building. However, despite it being high on the to-do list, it seems unlikely that such a development will occur in the near future, mainly due to funding. A new humanities block composed primarily of permanent classroom "blocks" has recently been erected in place of the old Quad courts, and was opened in May 2010. The block was built to create a specific area for humanities lessons, so that the "main block" and "West-wing" which formerly accommodated them would hold entirely their respective subject areas (science, in the main block, and mathematics and modern foreign languages. In late 2011 the upper site technology blocks, hosting food technology, textiles, graphic products and product design, were refurbished. In February 2011, the school requested to become an academy. The school officially gained academy status on 1 April 2011.
