Any recent experience of Richard Huish boarding college, especially netball?

[northdevonnewbie]

Richard Huish was suggested to us as a good boarding college for a sporty and academic child. Does anyone have any recent experience of it? Particularly regarding netball?

as you’ll see by my username we are not in Somerset so I also need to find out about admissions criteria!

I don't know that particular college, but my daughter is having a great time at Hartpury College. It's amazing for sports and netball in particular. This year apparently 30 girls didn't even make the 5th team as the standard was so high I am told.

@XelaM Doesn't sound like an amazing place for the 30 girls left behind.

It's a really lovely place. Honestly my daughter is loving it. But their academies (especially equine, rugby and netball) are of a very high standard and produce some elite athletes. I don't know if the OP is looking for a serious sports academy or one that takes anyone.

I would recommend going to their open day (I think there's one in November) and speaking to the coaches.

Academically, it's also very good and the boarding facilities a really lovely.

It has a fantastic reputation locally.

This is always the tricky balance in sports isn’t it? My DD is looking for a high level of netball, currently in a performance pathway. It is a shame for those girls who want to play and can’t, hopefully they can play recreational netball still, but I do think by the age of 16 it is ok for those who excel in particular sports to have those opportunities.

I hadn’t thought of Hartpury @XelaM - always associate it with horses & rugby! What are the academics like, is your DD doing A levels?

Yes, she's doing A-levels. She says the teaching is very good so far (but they only just started). I think their A-level results are very good. They have 3-4 classes for each subject for A-levels, so it's quite popular. The timetable is quite full on I'd say compared to other colleges from what I've seen. 6 hours teaching per subject, but my daughter says it's not too much. The facilities are amazing and my daughter went in knowing no one but made loads of friends. The accommodation (mine is in a single en-suite room) is very nice and the food is very good (they get fed 5 times per week). A lot of freedom but still supervised if you know what I mean.

One word of caution is that if you're a netball academy prospect you're likely to be offered shared accommodation with one other player because they like to put all the netball players together but you can ask to be moved to a single room once you know you got the grades to meet the offer and they will accommodate it. The girls in the netball academy live and breathe netball according to my daughter (she says it's like a "netball cult" 😂).