Mount Kelly

[dollypolly1]

I am thinking about sending my daughter to Mount Kelly in September for Sixth Form. She is a competitive swimmer so that is one of the draws. Any updated information on the school would be appreciated. We looked at other school options but like that Mount Kelly is small and the town environment. Thank you.

Tavistock is a terrific setting, but I think you need to think through what else your daughter needs other than a swim programme. And then test whether Mount Kelly is a good enough all-round option.

I don't have first hand experience of MK, but live fairly near by. What I observe is how many families who use the prep part of MK, (formerly the excellent Mount House), don't go on to the senior school. I think M.Kelly is very much dependent on the swim programme, and given the dearth of good independent school options west of Exeter that's quite an indictment.

But you may well be inundated here with happy MK parents who know more about it than I do, so weigh accordingly.

We were drawn to their performance swimming program, but it ultimately did not meet our expectations. In hindsight, we would have been better off staying with our local club. The program might be effective for elite swimmers with 700+ Fina points, but for others, the training quality is poor, with minimal technical instruction and generic strength and conditioning routines. Moreover, the food provided is substandard, compelling athletes to buy their own groceries for proper nutrition. We were also disappointed with the standard of education.

It’s unfortunate because the school boasts excellent facilities and has the potential to be top-class, but improvement seems unlikely. The head coach appears satisfied taking credit for the success of swimmers who joined as top athletes on significant scholarships. There is also a noticeable sense of arrogance and entitlement among some swimmers and coaches, especially during interactions with other clubs at meets. The head coach's absence at the English Summer Nationals and other home nation events, only attending the British Nationals, speaks volumes.

I agree with Paris2024. Our dd was there for from late prep, & left last year as we were unhappy with a few things. Tavistock is wonderful and it’s a beautiful setting, but like the above poster says, unless your dd is getting over 700 or so FINA points in key events, she’ll be ignored. If you’re not going to British and ideally medalling, forget about it. The not quite as good swimmers get the crapper pool time and even worse, when my dd was there, they were putting one squad nearly exclusively in the 25m pool which pissed a lot of parents off as that wasn’t what they were paying for! They’ve taken on far too many swimmers in the last 3 years and are living largely off the success of older swimmers (6th form) who have come in from other clubs or from overseas. One of my DD’s friends was from Eastern Europe and taking banned substances - not sure the coaches knew but my dd knew all about it! No wonder she wins so much 😳

I also had HUGE reservations about the boarding. Only one house parent for 70plus girls who only worked part time. Drugs, lots of underage sex (year 10s 😳), alcohol and self harming going on. My dd became really unhappy so we took her out which was the best thing we could have done. She’s doing much better academically in her new (state) school too, so not sure the schooling was up to much. Communication was really poor with her tutors etc - emails left unanswered regularly, and the swim coaches weren’t great either in that regard (& I wasn’t someone who contacted them much at all so it really annoyed me that when I did, they ignored me!)

It’s a shame as has a lot going for it but it didn’t work for us, and most of her boarding friends have left now too post GCSE (certainly the most academic ones) I think for a lot of the same reasons.

Feel free to dm me if you’d like more information… but personally I wouldn’t recommend it unless your dd is medalling at British & isn’t very academic!

About time a couple of first and only time posters posted to tell us how wonderful the school is..sadly nothing has changed, if anything it's getting worse. The failure to get planning permission and the vat situation are not good news for the school.

@tavinbloom I’ve been here since 2005, not a first time poster at all but change names when writing possibly identifying information! And no-one here has been particularly complimentary so not sure what your beef is. You hate MK, fine. The OP asked for recent stories so that’s what we gave her. What’s your first hand knowledge of the swim programme?

The poster asked about the school, not just the swimming prog, the schools financial position is rather important id have thought, but thanks for contributing, it's always nice to see the mk fan club in action, if you know about the swim programme then please feel free to dispute what has been said about it.

Eh? I did post about the swim program, as well as about the school and was hardly complimentary. Did you even read my post?!

But no-one on here has had a good word to say for MK, other than that Tavistock is a lovely town- what's with the 'MK fan club' jibe?

I have nothing but incredible comments to make about both the school and the swim programme. My child is not a 700+ points swimmer, and has absolutely thrived off an inclusive, well rounded supportive environment. She has been challenged academically, is supported in both the boarding house by matrons, and by her tutors. We are regularly communicated with, and the swim programme is embedded in the school and treated like any other subject, which is rare to find. We have school reports on their swimming around attendance, effort levels and progress and for the first time the coaches sit down with them to set and achieve realistic goals. The MK group work as a team, and support each other to achieve the best outcomes for each child and I am extremely happy with our experience. The coaches also work as a team, and their presence is there at every single meet they attend, and nothing is ever too much for any child in their programme. I hope this helps reassure you at least a little bit.

SaLou16216...I sadly do not recognise your experience. There’s a checklist of swimming tasks for the year, all completed with little attention to detail and an overall sense of mediocrity. Many of the swimming reports are generic, copy-paste documents with incorrect pronouns, which many parents find laughable. Emails to coaches are often ignored. The coaches take credit for top swimmers who were already excelling before joining, and I haven't seen any younger swimmers progress through the program to achieve real success. Bullying among the girls in the swim squad is an issue, and the overall sense of entitlement among some of the swimmers made it an environment we didn’t want for our child. It is correct that the head and assistant head only attend British Nationals which just reinforces their focus. We have just remove our child before they got stuck in the critical GCSE years. While there are a few dedicated teachers, the academics overall are poor. I wouldn’t recommend wasting your money.

What was your decision in the end if you don’t mind me asking?