50 Metre Olympic Swimming Pool

The Mount Kelly Swimming Centre – with both a 25m and 50m pool – provides swimming training support for Tavistock College and the wider community, through its community swimming programme.  60% of the capacity of the pool is protected for community use, and a range of community swimming programmes are offered, ranging from children’s parties to elite swim camps for clubs from around the country, and including both adult and junior Learn-to-Swim courses, crash-courses,  and public lanes sessions.  It is highly unusual for local community groups to have such ready access to an eight-lane, 50m Olympic swimming pool, and the swimming club now has 2,267 active members.

Aims

One of the aims of the project was to put community swimming at the heart of Mount Kelly's relationship with the local community, and to create a resource which would bring the local community into the school.

Background

Mount Kelly submitted a bid in 2012 for one of the five Olympic Legacy swimming pools. West Devon has become recognised as a region with a strong tradition of excellence in aquatics, and Mount Kelly believed that this was an opportunity to combine this with Mount Kelly's own long-established performance swim programme in a project which would bring together Mount Kelly, the local community, and a number of local schools.

Resources

The new pool was constructed on Mount Kelly's estate, adjacent to the existing 25m pool.  With the pool itself being part of the Olympic legacy project, and with financial support from Sport England, and by investing significant capital, Mount Kelly was able to bring the project to fruition without recourse to any local government or community funding.

Impact

The swimming club now boasts over 2,200 members, and 60% of the pool time is dedicated to use by the local community, schools and other clubs, who otherwise would be unable to enjoy long-course training facilities.

Pupil Involvement

Pupils from Year 2 and upwards, from a range of local schools, use the pool on an almost daily basis.