Kevicc school totnes

[Omilicious]

Hello fellow mums net users. Could anyone enlighten me as to the quality of kevicc s hook in totnes Devon. I am not looking for the best school academically, my DS will be year six next week and we are thinking of moving to the totnes area later this year. He loves performing arts, media, visual arts, golf, acting and singing so kevicc seems the perfect choice, I am looking for somewhere where there is Not a reluctance by the school to deal with bullies, he does seem a bit prone to being bullied. I am happy to consider locating anywhere between Exeter and Plymouth, so any advice would be welcome.

KEVICCS is an ex grammar school and used to be good. It still lives off its reputation but it is just a typical comprehensive. I have a friend who works there. As schools go its one of the better comprehensives. Totnes is a better place to live. However, it has as much of a bullying problem as any school . Its gotten rough over the last few years.

For the rest, unless you can get your DC into a grammar school, forget it.

Steer clear of Plymouth at all costs. Dont go into Cornwall. Stay to the north side of Exeter.

Thank you, I have been looking towards Exeter a little more, the advice helps an awful lot, it is difficult when you have little knowledge of an area, thank you for your time, I have spent endless hours reading threads on Devon and Cornwall schooling, but none mentioned kevicc or totnes in ant detail, thanks for taking the time to reply.

If you want to know about Exeter then I can help. I know nothing about Totnes.

Omilicious have sent you a PM.

As someone who grew up in Cornwall, I would not say - 'stay clear of Cornwall'.

Cornwall has 11 - 16 comprehensive schools and large sixth form colleges.

I - and my sisters - did exceptionally well in both our 11 - 16 school and our sixth from colleges. It was the days before A* and I think we got a total of 35 A grades at GCSE between us and then all As at A-level.

My youngest sister did her A-levels at Kevics (parents had moved to Devon by then) and got all As at A-level. She did not want to go to a girls grammar in Torquay, plus the girls grammar didn't offer further maths A-level, which is what she hoped to do. In her Physics A-level she scored one of highest scores and was invited to a special 'do' in London.

Two of us went on to Cambridge and one to Durham. We are now a hospital consultant, chartered engineer and social worker.

I have just holidayed in the area we grew up in and bumped into lots of old school people. They, too, were success stories and included city lawyers, GPs, senior teachers etc.

My old 11 - 16 school claims it is now the best in the south west and - having looked it up - it has great results. A number of pupils were getting over 12 As or A*s at GCSE and its overall 5A-Cs including English and Maths were approx. 70%. (Remember that all Cornish schools are non selective and that in each school there will be children of all abilities, so not everyone gets 15As at GCSE).

Torquay and Plymouth have grammar schools which mean that the whole issue of secondary education is more pressured. (And a lot of grammar schools, having selected their pupils, seem to rest on their laurels a bit). Kevics had a great hippy atmoshphere when my sister was there.

Cornwall has 11 - 16 comprehensive schools and large sixth form colleges

I work in Cornwall. This is not true. Most of Cornwall has 11-18 comprehensives of varying quality. A school can only be as good as the community it serves. The most troubled areas have the worst schools in my experience, although all are tainted by extreme behaviour problems.
Cornwall has schools with some appalling behaviour issues in my experience and that does impact on the teaching, learning and the results in the schools, even compared to the worst inner city schools.

Two areas of Cornwall, Truro and St. Austell (known locally as St. Awful) are served by 11 - 16 schools and two large general FE Colleges, not sixth form colleges. This does lead to problems and under achievement for some of the pupils transferring although the size of those places and various practices cover that statistic up somewhat.

There are two or three other schools, mainly Sir James Smiths in N Cornwall which no longer has a sixth form and Looe in East Cornwall which are 11 - 16 and pupils transfer either to a general FE or to another school with a sixth form.

I grew up around the Torbay area and went to school in Plymouth. I trained to teach in Exeter so I have a good knowledge of those schools too. KEVICCS is probably one of the better ones. But that is qualitative and subjective. How you view it depends on what you are used to (the schools you are coming from) and what you are expecting.

Torbay and Devon and Plymouth is plagued by the grammar school problem. Selection does leave most of the other schools in a sink situation, often with poor behaviour and poor ethos. This is made worse by the general level of hidden poverty and cultural factors. I cannot think of a single school I could recommend other than Colyton or Churston (both selective). On the other hand I can think of several you might want to avoid. :(

To answer your question, I would say KEVICCS is OK, go for it, if you can get in.

Narrie

I grew up in St Austell! - it's not that bad!

You are correct - St Austell Sixth form college no longer exists having been swallowed up into St Austell College.

But, the two St Austell schools and the others in the area (Fowey, Tregony) did not have sixth form colleges.

@narrie Devon is not 'plagued' by the Grammar school 'problem'. There is ONE grammar school in the Devon LEA. (Torbay and Plymouth may be plagued, as you put it, I don't know). The problem Devon has is the large private sector. and the fact that so many of the schools are 11-16 and lack 6th forms.

The problem Devon has is the large private sector. and the fact that so many of the schools are 11-16 and lack 6th forms

That there is a thriving independent tells you of the paucity of the local state schools not the other way round. Those who can go private because the state schools are poor. It isnt the independent schools that cause the state to be poor.

The OP asked about the southern corridor of Devon. Nearly all the schools across that corridor have sixth forms. No order and not exclusive, Paignton, Teignmouth, Coombe Head, Newton Abbot School (whatever they are calling that now) Cuthbert Mayne , Torquay Westland (?) Coming south you have the catchment schools of South Dartmoor, Ivybridge, etc all have sixth forms Nearly all of the Plymouth schools (comprehensives) have sixth forms. Whitleigh is the only exception I can think of there. All of course will have pupils creamed off by the grammar schools in Plymouth and Torbay. Of those left, those who can go private the rest go state and I suppose it shows.

North Devon has fewer 11 -18 schools just like St Austell and Truro. However, I think Ilfracombe and Bideford have sixth forms although I wouldnt recommned them :(

There arent very many independent schools around the area though really (outside of Exeter). There are a number in Exeter. There are a few clustered just outside . North Devon I think is down to two now.

In Cornwall sixth forms stretch from Saltash to Bodmin and Launceston and across the N Cornwall coast from Bude to Newquay. Not exactly the picture you paint.

@narrie you do realise you are talking about seval different LEAs there? You made an (incorrect) statement about Devon. The OP is asking about a school in Devon Bringining in Cornwall, Torbay and Plymouth (different KEAs) to try and support an anti grammar school thesis is being extremely disingenuous.

I accepted that you comment as applied to Torbay and Plymouth might be correct but it isn't as far as Devon goes.

Having friends with children who have attended schools in both South Hams and Cornwall I found narries posts very helpful .
And with no hidden agendas of anti grammar schools .

And am very confused by
The OP is asking about a school in Devon Bringining in Cornwall, Torbay and Plymouth (different KEAs) to try and support an anti grammar school thesis
what county do you think Plymouth is in ?
are you thinking that Devon is a LEA ?

I mentioned Cornwall because someone else did.

Plymouth is still in Devon in case anyone is in doubt. The county boundary is the Tamar River. There are places in North Cornwall where you can cross from Devon to Cornwall and back again within 150 yards. I have done it regularly when I lived in Cornwall and worked in a school in North Devon :)

The problem with this whole picture is that it is complicated because the area has three (four if you include Cornwall) LEA's - Torbay, Devon, Plymouth and Cornwall but a much broader spectrum of school types and selection systems within those LEA's depending on where you are. Add to that, certainly in and around Plymouth from the S Hams to SE Cornwall pupils can apply to Plymouth Grammar schools and pupils from anywhere within travelling distance can apply to any grammar school in Devon if you live in Devon, and you bosh the idea of LEA being important at all unless its for the local state comps and catchments.

Its a difficult system to get your head round anytime. I have lived and worked here nearly all my life both in Devon and Cornwall (and in North Cornwall and in North Devon) and I dont have it completely sussed but I do know more than the basics of it and who and what applies.

Devon is an LEA. Plymouth is a unitary authority, its schools are not under the control of Devon. I live here, and have 3 DCs in Devon schools. Do you?

The reason that it is significant that Plymouth and Torbay are NOT in Devon for education purposes is that they do as Narrie pointed out have a fullscale Grammar system. Devon has one grammar school. Huge difference. Blaming the grammar systems in Plymouth and Torbay for the problems of schools in Devon (the Devon LEA) is disingenuous and completely missing the point.

And I thought London was complicated as far as schools went....

While as Narrie points out anyone in Devon can apply to one of the Plymouth or Torbay grammars in practice very very few do because the travel situation here is atrocious. Very little public transport and the roads are rubbish too so even for people who have the time and could afford the petrol/diesel to drive their DCs to and fro between schools, it would take a very long time. It's probably much easier getting to a Plymouth Grammar from the cornish side of the Tamar than it is from most of Devon. The existence of the Plymouth grammar schools has negligible impact on KEVICS

Not only do I have children who go to school in Devon (the county as opposed to the LEA) I was brought up there myself and I work in Cornwall LEA right now and not in an 11 - 16 school either, although I have worked across the whole area (after all its only 30 miles from one side to the other down here).

I know the school asked about (KEVICCS) because I have worked there b ut it was a few years ago and the school was better then than now. I know most of the others by association and the system by having dealt with the headache for my DC.

It sounds like you have kids at school in Plymouth? Schools in Plymouth aren't representative of the system in Devon, you must know that. The Plymouth 11+ really isn't a huge issue for people living in Totnes.

You teach in Cornwall and I guess you were rightly annoyed when someone said 'schools in Cornwall are this and the problem with cornwall is that ' when you know that is not the case. It is equally annoying for a Devon parent to hear you saying that the problem with Devon schools is the grammar system when there is just one grammar school in Devon and that one isn't really accessible to anyone living West of Exeter. There are plenty of problems with Devon schools - the main one being the massive gap in per capita finance made available to the LEA when compared with almost every other LEA - but the single grammar school isn't one of them.

The North side of Devon and N Cornwall around Biddeford and Barnstaple is difficult to traverse although doable. The Southern corridor is served by the A 38 Parkway and M5 and you can get from SE Cornwall to Exeter in less than an hour (and all points between). I do it daily. You can even get from SE Cornwall to Truro in an hour. I did two years supply around the area when I came back to work from having my DC so I have done the travelling.

No, I dont have my DC in Plymouth schools. I wouldnt .

You can get from SE cornwall to Exeter in less than an hour if you (a) break the speed limit (as so many poor drivers do on the Devon 'expressway' ) and (b) avoid the frequent accidents (caused by the speeding drivers) which often leave the rest of the traffic at a crawl. Leave the A38 (eg to get to Totnes) and it's windy windy single lane roads everywhere.

The M5 stops at Exeter so I'm not sure how you think it serves South Devon.

I see you are completely ignoring the issue of the reasons for the problems with Devon schools.

I can do it without breaking the speed limit - although I am on the speed limit. It?s still 70mph on the A 38 duel carriageway. It is possible. When I was at Exeter University I used to do Exeter to Plymouth (Hartley) door to door in 45 mins on the Parkway. Before that it took a long time. I can recall how hard it was when I was a child myself.

Yes, there are accidents but not as many as you might think. The biggest hold up I have ever had is on the Tamar Bridge, usually caused by some plonker breaking down, not an accident as such. Then it can take two hours to go two yards.

I could do KEVICCS from Plymouth in 40 mins when I used to work there. If you are coming across from Exmouth or similar it can be a hard slog. I don?t actually live in Plymouth now; I live in its commuter belt area of Devon. The A38 though is still my way across. That?s so much for the roads. It really depends on how you feel about them. The road from Plymouth to Barnstaple is a winding one but you can get across it in an hour and ten minutes without speeding or danger. The road from North Devon to Cornwall (the A39) is in my experience the worst for winding (it?s not called ?the snake road" for nothing).

I am not ignoring the reasons as you seem to think they are. I don?t agree.

I don?t like to get into debates about the schools around Devon. Most of the schools are poor compared to other parts of the country. I have friends who like to tell me how wonderful certain schools are but I have worked in most of them and I can?t agree.

There are many reasons why the schools are poor. It isn?t all about per capita spending. It?s not all about the independent schools thriving, although they thrive I agree, because the comprehensives are just not up to it.

It?s not what I want for my DC anyway. Plymouth and Torbay Grammar schools also under perform but they leave the others poorly served. I think I have seen others say similar on MN, so that?s not a first.

Hi i’m looking for some advice, We are thinking of moving to Totnes and my child is in year 8. The school choices are Kevics and possibly Ivy Bridge Community College. Has anyone had any experience of either schools and /Or have any recommendations. I would really appreciate some feedback from other parents whose children have been or are at the schools. My Son is 13. Thank you for any advice.