Totnes, Ashburton, Bovey Tracey...

[Tulipsandclogs]

Looking for your opinions on which Town would be right to relocate too. Liking the look of South Dartmoor Community College, and also keviccs, taking into account two of our 3 children are Dyslexic. Who can help?!
Cheers!

My friends live at Bovey Tracey and two of their children go to the school you mention. They love it and there is lots to do in the area. They are not dyslexic though so cannot comment on that.

Hi we moved to the area earlier this year and visited SD, KEVICCs, Ivybridge and Kingsbridge. DS is in primary so we will have to choose.

They were all impressive, KEVICCS was our 4th choice SD 3rd and we're ummimg and aa aching between Kingsbridge and Ivybridge

I have bumped into a v v old friend whose kids are at KEVICCS and love it, I work with people with kids at all 4 and all v happy.

DS has dyspraxia so we have similar dilemma but no clear opinion from anyone.

We have moved to a village we looked at all 3 towns you mention we didn't choose them because

Totnes too hippy for my DH and school least favourite for DS (if I was single I would live there tomorrow)

Really liked Ashburton but noise from A38 put us off the houses we liked.

Bovey Tracey nice but we wanted to be near sea.

Not sure this helps !

I've heard bad things about KEVICs and a friends dyslexic child.In particular, homework being muddled, not well defined about that its purpose is and what skills are being marked. Said child has also been on the receiving end of some pretty rough physical stuff from other students.

Thanks guys, great help! I hadn't considered Ashburton maybe noisy, to be honest we too are looking at the villages. I shall have a look at Ivybridge too. Many thanks!

Have you thought about Kingsteignton, near newton abbot

Kinsteignton is hideous.

Bovey seems nice, no secondary school, but primary, drs, swimming pool , nice park, decent selection of shops ( for rural small town Devon).

Bovey is fairly well connected but not great for DC activities IIRC.
Kingsteignton is a nightmare rat run for when the A380 is busy and Newton Abbot seems so sad.

KEVICCs reputation seems to be increasing a lot recently, the uniform seems to be less contentious this year

ICC is the stand out school imo. KEVICCS is perfect for some families. Totnes is very 'marmite'!

Kingsteignton ...hideous........ tell me more

Your choice of town depends on what sort of environment you're looking for. Totnes is indeed very hippy which I love, whereas to me, Ashburton is a great place to go if you're shopping for presents, antiques or cake and not a lot else. Ivybridge doesn't have much atmosphere - it seems a bit soulless to me. But I'm sure others will disagree.

I have friends with children at those three schools and they are all pretty happy with them - they are all good schools! I have DC at Ivybridge and KEVICC. Ivy is more 'formal' or corporate, but don't be swayed by its 'outstanding' Ofsted - the other two schools on your list also get great results. Re dyslexia, I know of someone who went to Ivy initially but he wasn't happy there for various reasons including the poor support for his dyslexia so he moved to a different school.

In terms of achieving academically, KEVICC works brilliantly for very self-motivated children but perhaps less well for others - its laid-back ethos can mean that some DC get away with not working as hard as they could.

Although I don't know anyone who goes there, Kingsbridge also has a good reputation - might work for you?

Have you visited the schools? When my DC looked round (all three), they knew very quickly which one would suit them best. Before you decide where to live, it's also worth finding out about school bus catchment areas.

Good luck with your move

AFAIK. South Dartmoor ( ashburton) and kings bridge both have school mountain bike clubs.
Which would be enough to sway my DS in his choice if we lived down that side of the moor.