Schools in Tavistock
Tavistock's 12 schools serve a West Devon market town that acts as the main education hub for a large rural area stretching to Dartmoor's western edge and the Cornwall border. Devon County Council coordinates admissions for community schools, with straight-line distance as the standard tiebreaker after sibling priority. Mount Kelly — a combined prep and senior independent school — sits within the town but operates outside Devon's coordinated scheme.
Faith provision is significant in Tavistock, with 10 of the 12 schools carrying a religious designation. St Peter's CE Junior School and St Rumon's CE Infants operate as separate faith schools serving the same community, which affects how families apply for the junior-to-primary transition. Seven of the town's schools are academies, each setting individual admissions criteria that may differ from Devon's standard distance-based approach.
Tavistock Community Primary School is the main non-faith community primary in town. Secondary allocation flows almost entirely to Tavistock College, which serves a vast geographic intake including children from Callington, Launceston and Okehampton fringes. Families outside Tavistock itself should check Devon's rural transport provision and the college's published furthest distance offered in recent years.
School demand in Tavistock
Across the 11 schools in Tavistock with published capacity data, the average fill rate is 78%. 1 of them is currently at or above their published admission number, and at those schools catchment distance is likely to decide places at the next intake.
4 schools in Tavistock have a religious character, so faith criteria sit alongside catchment distance in their admissions policies.
7 of the schools in Tavistock are academies that set their own admissions criteria independently of Devon, so check each school's policy directly rather than assuming the council default applies.
7 of the schools in Tavistock have a current Ofsted rating, of which 6 are rated Good or Outstanding. Demand and catchment distance tend to be tightest at the highest-rated schools.
Primary schools in Tavistock: 1 oversubscribed (8)
Mary Tavy and Brentor Community Primary School
Primary · Community school
Tavistock · PL19 9PR
Tavistock Primary & Nursery School
Primary · Foundation school
Tavistock · PL19 8BX
St Peter's Church of England (VA) Junior School
Primary · Academy sponsor led
Tavistock · PL19 9HW
St Rumon's Church of England (VC) Infants School
Primary · Academy converter
Tavistock · PL19 9EA
Whitchurch Community Primary School
Primary · Academy converter
Tavistock · PL19 9SR
Gulworthy Primary Academy
Primary · Academy converter
Tavistock · PL19 8JA
Lamerton CofE Primary Academy
Primary · Academy converter
Tavistock · PL19 8RJ
Milton Abbot Primary School
Primary · Academy converter
Tavistock · PL19 0PS
Secondary Schools in Tavistock (1)
Other Schools in Tavistock (3)
Mount Kelly
Not applicable · Other independent school
Tavistock · PL19 0HZ
Tor View School
Not applicable · Other independent special school
Tavistock · PL19 0JN
Castlebridge School
Not applicable · Free schools special
Tavistock · PL19 8BU
Catchment area boundaries for schools in Tavistock are set by Devon and updated each year. The "last distance offered", how far the furthest successful applicant lived, changes annually based on the number of applications received.