Mount Kelly vs. Millfield - Sixth Forms

[movingon2015]

Considering Sixth Form for our DD at either Mount Kelly, Tavistock or Millfield, Somerset. Apart from academic excellence, we also need a school with a dedicated swimming programme. Any first hand advice on either school would be greatly appreciated.

WARNING!!! Do not move to Millfield for their swim programme! I CANNOT stress this enough!! I have seen SO MANY swimmers ignored, overlooked, dis-motivated (not sure that is actually a real word!!) and treated just appallingly. Not just my offspring. But we have witnessed so many talented swimmers just left by the way side. The Millfield swim programme's attitude to their swimmers is horrific. Millfield seems to have just one sort of swim programme and they use that and if it works for your child then great. If it doesn't work for your child then tough luck! It is like a maths teacher only teaching long multiplication one way and if you don't understand that one way then tough luck - he is never going to teach you any of the other methods. Millfield Swimming promises the earth and delivers pretty much nothing. One of the swimmers at Millfield came from kelly College as Millfield told him they had LOADS of contacts with American Colleges. they could help him get a scholarship. Endless sales pitches at him before he moved to Millfield. When he arrived at Millfield it was all false statements! They did nothing to help him at all. he was actually offered a 100% scholarship at Hawaii University if he achieved xx time. He asked and asked and asked and asked the head Coach for a meeting so they could come up with a plan for even trying to get his times down to the required level for this hawaii offer. His parents even asked the head coach for some sort of plan for peaking and tapering for certain events so this hawaii time could be gunned for and focused on. the Head Coach did nothing! And the swimmer saw this scholarship offer slip through his fingers. All credit to the swimmer though. He apparently spent his whole Easter holidays emailing american colleges. Doing lots of research into each college swim team's times and programmes. He received 7 scholarship offers. They totalled over $500,000. they were all between 65% and 97% scholarships off all his tuition, food, accomodation, coaching etc fees out there. he chose the best one for him. He is now in his second year in america and already has national swim times for this season. Yet according to Millfield he wasn't of any interest to them! Millfield swimming have never even acknowledged that he is now on an American swim programme on a scholarship. They were just not interested. i could go on and on giving examples of swimmers who have been spat out by Millfield Swimming. National gold medal swimmers who have been treated appallingly and who are now doing nothing. Not at university. Not on a swim programme. Nothing - and all because Millfiled made them feel so un-talented. I really strongly urge you not to even look at Millfield. They talk the talk, but the certainly do not walk the walk. But more importantly the negative atmosphere that the Millfield Coaches creates is poisonous in our opinion. One of our children chose to leave Millfield early. They have said it was the best decision ever. they now swim with a local club and they cannot believe the intensity of the club swim sets compared to the swim sets at Millfield. They have done more technique work in the 7 months swimming with the local club than in the whole 3 years they were at Millfield! Plus their swim times have got faster in the past 7 months than in the whole of the years they were at Millfield.

With regards to Millfield for your daughters education. We were more than happy with our offsprings teachers. But I think we were very lucky that they got the good teachers!

The other main issue with Millfield is that Senior Management are extremely arrogant and simply never ever listen to the parents. The school's attitude is to try and keep the parents as far away from the school as possible. they do not want the parents involved. When you do contact the school regarding an issue they make you feel as if you are intruding. They make you feel that you are trying to be too involved with your offspring. In our opinion Millfield actually undermines you as a parent.

If your offspring get good teachers then the education side would be fine. If they don't get good teachers or if any issues occur then you are just fighting a losing battle with Millfield as they really really do not care about your opinions as parents. Their arrogance never ceased to amaze us.

Sorry for the long ramble but it fills my heart with dread when I read that you were even looking at Millfield!

Sherborne Girls have a new swim programme which I think would be worth looking at.

Some info here.

Thank you so much tickinglists, I really appreciate you taking the time to share your first-hand experience of Millfield, in great detail. It really puts things into perspective! We visited Millfield recently and were ever so impressed by the 'campus feeling'; the modern buildings, state of the art facilities, etc but, of course we all know that there are so many other aspects one has to carefully consider. Mount Kelly had a great community/family feeling and this is a very important factor as our DD will be moving from overseas into a boarding school set up and it's important that the transition is a smooth one and for us to feel reassured. The staff at MK have been so accessible and always on hand to answer calls, emails, etc. We were impressed with the swimming coach and his staff, who took a great interest in our DD. I know for a fact that no school ticks all the boxes but so far we feel that Mount Kelly ticks the important ones!

Swimming is hard enough as a sport. In fact any sport at such high levels is hard. We never expected Millfield to promise us PB's or anything silly like that. But we did expect Millfield to offer a level of care and interest in our swimming offspring. This just never materialised. It was horrible watching other such talented swimmers downwards spiral. They all need help and support and people caring for them and watching over them. Millfield's whole attitude was that 'is has to come from the swimmer'. Well if that is the case Millfield, then why on earth does Micheal Phelps need a swim coach??!! he knows more than enough techniques and swim sets to train by himself. Surely! No he needs a swim coach to support him. To get him through the highs and the lows. To set goals. To see if those goals are going to be achieved. To adjust things if necessary. And so on. Yet Millfield's attitude is the polar opposite to this.
As you say, no school is ever going to tick all boxes. But young people will never succeed if they are in a negative environment that simply does not appreciate them and their talents - at whatever level those talents might be. Millfield does not seem to even recognise the talents of their students, let alone appreciate them.
As for all the great facilities at Millfield. No point having them if you are not actually allowed to use them. My two offspring were not even allowed to use the gym or the new Strength and Conditioning Centre! Yet they are both national and international level athletes!
I speak to a lot of sporting families in my line of work and the second I mention Millfield the flood gates open with the Millfield parents. The ones I have met do not have a single good word to say about the sporting facilities and the so-called 'opportunities' at Millfield. The parents then cannot believe that you have had the same experiences. They have thought they were the only ones feeling let down by Millfield. That is because Millfield keeps the parents as far away as possible. their faces show great relief when they then realise that they are not an isolated case, they are not over reacting to Millfield's lack of care over their child, and so on.
Swimming is tough. Coaches have to be tough. But first and foremost Coaches have to be genuinely interested in people and specifically those they are Coaching. That is not the case at Millfield. It is a conveyor belt to them. I am glad my words have helped you.
St Felix's over in Suffolk has a good swim programme with excellent pastoral care I have been told. Too late for my two. But might be worth a look.

Worth adding Plymouth College to the list?

A gold (swimming) and a silver (diving) at the last Olympics was quite an achievement.

Thank you CharlesRyder. Will look into Sherborne but a bit tough as we live overseas and we have already been to visit Millfield, Mount Kelly and Plymouth College. Didn't realize there were other boarding schools with dedicated swim programme to consider! Thank you.

Thank you Needmoresleep! We did consider Plymouth and visited the college last month. It has a lot to offer, especially the fact that they do the IB as well as A levels but we had certain concerns and decided to rule out Plymouth.

DD swam when she was younger and knew a few who went to Millfield. None stayed, including a couple where boarding was an attraction as much as the swimming, so though we don't know why they left, tickinglists comments don't really surprise me.

If your child is really good it might be worth discussing with the ASA, as the right coach is then more important. Schools generally like elite sports people, and so may be willing to allow taxi rides to the Bath ITC or Ealing Swimming Club (to randomly name two places capable of the right level of training) plus a reduced academic load, perhaps three A levels rather than the standard Private School 4. A lot of Clubs use private school sports facilities, so you might be lucky enough to find that even though there is not a published swim programme most swimming can be done at school.

Similarly if academics are the priority, get a short list of schools and then see which are prepared to allow trips to the local swimming club.

(Inter alia academic schools are increasingly aware of the importance in a US University application of being able to boast of strong extra curricular. I can think of several pupils at big name schools who have been allowed a surprising degree of leeway to pursue their chosen sports.)

Well, I have to say from first hand experience, if it's a school that is completely dedicated to swimming 24/7 it has to be Mount Kelly, they train hard but have amazing results. The boarding is also excellent, very nurturing and a good deal of overseas kids so your child would certainly feel at home. The education is also super. They have the best swimming coach around. Good luck!

I'm hoping this thread isn't totally dead! My DC has been offered a scholarship on the swim programme at Millfield and I am very concerned about the warning above from tickinglists. Has anyone else any info or concerns or reassurances about the school? Tickinglists are you able to add anything further? ( sorry I know there is nothing unclear about what you are saying and wondered if there was anything more specific that makes your warning so strong) We obviously don't want to make a big and costly mistake and having heard lots of positives from the school itself it's really helpful to hear from parents so we can make an informed decision! We had ruled out MK and Plymouth and had been very impressed with Millfield but would rather have eyes open now when deciding rather than later when it may be too late.

onelastpush I don't personally have a DC at Millfield but just to add to the rumour mill that I know of one girl who received a full sports scholarship to the school due to her swimming and by year 10 had given up because of problems with the coaching (although in fact stayed at the school for sixthform). She might have become less keen and therefore more likely to find fault with the coaches I don't know but she was very driven when she was younger.

Ask any questions you want and I will see if I can answer them!

Just this week I have spoken to yet another TWO sets of parents who are fed up with Millfield. the list of dissatisfied parents grows each and every week as far as I can see. and they all complain about the same things. the main one being that Millfield promises everything to newcomers and then does nothing to follow through. Such disappointment!

Millfield have wonderful facilities. but only if you are allowed to use them. there were numerous talented athletes that we knew at the school but they were not even allowed to use the new Strength and Conditioning Centre! It seems that was only built and fitted out for the Rugby players. Yet Millfield advertise it to all new potential parents.

The athletes cannot use the school gym unless a teacher is present. As my offspring used to say - what difference does it make if a history teacher is there? There were never any permanent gym staff there. So they could not just go an use the gym if they wanted to. So why have a gym?

The list is endless. millfield have the facilities but there is no point having any facilities if the students are not allowed to use them!

The swim coaching at Millfield is appalling - in our experience. our local clubs give far better coaching. in the entire period our offspring were at Millfield they did not do any technique work. just endless lengths. they never did any starts and turns sessions. they never did any relay takeover sessions. they never did any drills. nothing. the swim techniques of our offspring went so far backwards it was unbelievable. yet now they are at our local club their times are faster than ever. explain that to me Millfield?

But more importantly it was the atmosphere of the school that worried us. the endless 'overlooking' of students and athletes that just did not make sense. there are so many talented students and athletes there who have simply left the sixth form and are now doing pretty much nothing. it is terrible to see. these youngster have so much to offer. all the ones we know of are such pleasant, talented, friendly young people. but they have left Millfield and just stopped dead in their tracks. how can this be? Millfield just seem to ignore how talented these young people are. surely an educational establishment should inspire and encourage and find what makes that child click. Even as they get to sixth form stage the school should still be interested in what they are doing and where they are going next. but the school simply is not interested.

The Director of Sport also is not professional at all. he does not like being asked questions. he seems to decide when the situation is sorted. He is extremely dismissive in his emails. even if you still have questions you need answering. one young lad in my eldests House was a talented triathlete. he was selected for some talent academy. the Director of Sport actually contact the triathlon association to check this lad was telling the truth. the lad was so upset. can you imagine your Director of Sport not thinking you are good enough and that it can't possibly be true so he thought he would just call up the national association and check? the Director of Sport has also been known to call around people that he knows to ask questions about parents! I would be horrified if he called my friends or colleagues to ask what I was like! and why would he do that?

And then you have the Head Coach who refuses to listen to any parents. one particular parent kept saying she was not happy about one of the female swim coaches. this swim coach kept saying strange and inappropriate things to the boys and about the boys. She then made inappropriate comments about one of the swimmers photos. the Head Coach told the parents to stop causing trouble. the parents were asked to no longer attend the pool building. the parents were so worried about this female swim coach. they even went to the Senior management with their concerns. but apparently Millfield refused to listen to them. the parents were so upset and the mum just kept saying there wasn't something quite right about how the female swim coach behaved towards the boys. then the female swim coach left very abruptly. according to the swimmers in the squad she had been inappropriate with some of the male swimmers! all the swimmers knew all about it apparently. this information was confirmed by certain parents. plus I think some or one of the boys involved left half way through his sixth form studies. yet Millfield did not listen to the first parents concerns! that is what worried us about Millfield. Millfield refuses to listen to you. Millfield does not want to hear what the parents have to say.

The list of concerns is endless. I would think very very carefully about your child attending Millfield. We have seen too many start at Millfield and then either leave or simply sink into obscurity. just very sad to experience and to witness.