Ellesmere College closing its swimming club after a damning report

[XelaM]

Has anyone seen this? www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-60232977 Couldn't find a thread about this (sorry if there is one) but this is quite shocking given how many Olympians came from this boarding school/swim club

As harrowing as the report may seem to read it is important to consider that those 70 complaints were made by a handful of individuals who calculated their moves over the past 3 years to bring down the club. This same report was also published in July 2021 but since the school is launching new swim academy the story has been rereleased to coincide with its opening. Swim england have never interviewed current members or communicated the ‘serious safeguarding issues’ to parents or staff. Current members are fighting for the club and contrary to the report have not actually been shut down they are choosing to end affiliation with swim england as SE are making it hard to negotiate. Just because EC is a private school the press have a field day. There was a convicted p3do at neighbouring club oswestry and no action was taken. The programme will continue to be run but the kids will just compete under home clubs so SE win at the first hurdle in their mission to collapse the private swim schools that feed into their performance pathways. Press leaked story mid exam season and the kids are devastated at the prospect of the club they love going down the drain. Not saying nothing ever happened but story was completely blown out of proportion. The parents who continue to support the programme are being painted as neglectful yet they only allow children to attend to support kids dreams. Schools name has been dragged through dirt yet previously had no involvement with Titans, only provided the pool. The kids are embarrassed to be associated with this mess and to have the club the love’s legacy tainted on the front page of the BBC - no regard for how this leak has affected them and their own mental health.

It's hard to know what's true or not, but those who achieve success always say ghat complaints are made by those whose kids didn't manage to cut it. There is a lot of abuse of power and damage that is being done by some elite coaches in many sports

A friend of ours has just moved to the school and club so she and her family will be devastated. She has already trained at the club for a couple of years and was very happy there. This is very sad for all concerned.