The National School in Ivybridge was linked to St John’s Church under the trusteeship of the minister and wardens of the church.
The Blachford family of Cornwood owned the land on which the school was built. The school was granted a 999 year lease and the annual rent in 1876 was 5/-.
Between 1876 and 1885, the school came under the Ermington School Board. A £600 loan was granted for alterations and improvements.
Ivybridge School Board was formed in 1895, using the same premises as the old National School. The managers of the school included representatives from the village churches.
The school was split into the Infants, with a School Mistress in charge and other female, mostly uncertified staff, and the Mixed School, for children aged 7 to 14, with a School Master in charge, assisted mostly by men, who were certified teachers.
By the 1940s, the school was known as the Ivybridge Council School. It played host to a number of evacuees from Acton, London. The White House (in Erme Road) also acted as a school room for some of the evacuees.
With the population of Ivybridge growing, the village school became increasingly overcrowded. In the education finance plan for 1971/2, funds were made available for a new school to be built at the western end of Ivybridge where new houses had been built after the war.
The Council School then became Station Road Infants School, with the Juniors accommodated at the newly built Manor Junior School.
In 1991, with primary school reorganisation, it became Erme Primary School.