Good, provided you accept that the secondary years happen somewhere else. Two mainstream state primaries serve the area, and the results are solid. The county picture behind them is strong. The nearest secondary is a car journey, not a walk. Small children walk to school here; teenagers get in a vehicle, and that single fact shapes more house-buying decisions than anything on a league table.
At primary level, the two mainstream state primaries around here produce a key stage two maths average of about 106, which sits on the comfortable side of the expected standard rather than dramatically above it. The town has its own primary, and the Department for Transport's modelling puts a primary school at about nine minutes on foot, roughly seven by car and around nine by public transport. Those are 2019 figures, and while bus times age badly, the distance to the school gate does not. Beyond the town, Otterton Church of England Primary School, Drake's Church of England Primary School and St Peter's Church of England Primary School cover the surrounding villages. Three of the nearest primaries carry Church of England in the name, which in this corner of Devon is closer to a naming convention than a selection criterion.
The wider inspection picture is genuinely good, with the caveat that it covers the whole of Devon rather than this town alone. Ofsted has published overall grades for 172 settings across the county, of which 138 are good or better, so roughly eight in ten. Three hold an outstanding grade. Thirty-one require improvement and three are rated inadequate. A further 135 settings hold no published overall grade at all, which means not yet inspected under the current arrangements rather than anything to read into. Eight in ten at good or better is a county doing its job, and it is a better backdrop than most coastal areas can offer.
The catchment caveat is the one that catches people out. Naming a school near a house is not the same as having a place at it, and admission runs on the local authority's criteria rather than on which streets an estate agent gestures at during a viewing. Oversubscription changes year to year, and a school within walking distance in September is still a school with an admissions policy in March. Anyone buying specifically for a named primary should confirm the current arrangements with the authority before the offer goes in, not after.
Secondary is where the geography asserts itself. There is no secondary school in the town, and the modelling puts the nearest one at about 17 minutes by car, roughly 29 by public transport and about 84 minutes on foot, which is a polite way of saying that walking is not a plan. Pupils head to schools in the nearby towns, with Exmouth and Ottery St Mary the usual destinations. Mill Water School also serves the wider area. The practical effect is that the family school run stops being a two-minute stroll the moment a child turns eleven, and the household either absorbs a second car or builds its week around bus timetables. Neither is a disaster. Both are worth pricing in.
Education is one of the strongest things this area has going for it, and it earns that on the county's inspection record rather than on any one school's reputation. The honest asterisk is distance: the primary years are easy here, and the secondary years come with a set of car keys.