The proportion of boys attending the school from minority ethnic groups is below the national average, although there are a number who speak English as an additional language.

In 1906, the Devonport Borough Council took over the school and over the next thirty years it continued to teach boys who came from the city or in by train from the Tamar Valley and Cornwall.

In 1941 the school was evacuated to Penzance because of World War II and in 1945 returned to the present site, the former Stoke Military Hospital on Paradise Road, which had been built in 1797.

[4] A book by former student and teacher Henry Whitfeld called A Torch in Flame, chronicles the history of the school from its founding to the death of headmaster Dr Cresswell in 1974.

[6] The 2011 OFSTED report for Devonport High School for Boys concluded that attainment of boys across the school was "consistently high", further highlighting that "all groups of students, including those who have special educational needs and/or disabilities enjoy their learning and respond well to the varied learning activities offered to them.

[8] Until the merger with Tamar High School at the end of the 1980s there were three 'forms' of pupils who were separate during their first three years, then began to mix as they opted into different subjects (North, South and West or N, S and W).

Based within what was once the Stoke Military Hospital, the school buildings and blocks are all named after notable people with links to Plymouth.

This offered pupils the opportunity for work experience with local companies as well as the chance to improve their French and enjoy activities like horseriding and canoeing.