WHY
MEDITERRANEAN
COLLEGE OF
SPORT?
The Mediterranean College of Sport will be a co-educational independent school that values the importance of sport within the learning process of student-athletes. Giving sport the focus point, while maintaining a high level of educational delivery by our professional staff, the Mediterranean College of Sport aims to cultivate a sustainable dual career eco-system and nurture its enrolled athletes through tailored time-management support and guidance.
Our state-of-the-art facilities will house development programmes for students of football, athletics, swimming and waterpolo, giving student-athletes from Year 7 to Year 11 the opportunity to complete their education up to Sixth Form level while honing in on their athletic abilities and strengths. In combining education and sport, the Mediterranean College of Sport will focus on individuality and professionalism, preparing all our enrolled student-athletes for the bright future that awaits them.
The team behind the Mediterranean College Sport includes Maltese and foreign specialists, educators and coaches with years of experience in their respective areas. The school will also benefit from collaboration agreements reached with reputable partners in Malta and abroad.
THE COLLEGE
The Mediterranean College of Sport will connect sports and academic studies closely by offering a flexible academic environment that is customised to student sporting demands. Entry will be by selection only. Care will always be taken to ensure that the development of students is not compromised. It will be quality over quantity, thus there will be a focus on a select few rather than pandering to the masses.
The school itself is set to open its doors to students in September 2024 and will be housed adjacent to St Aloysius College in Birkirkara. Despite its proximity to the esteemed college, the Mediterranean College of Sport will be a separate educational institution entirely, evoking a different educational atmosphere as well as sporting a unique educational curriculum.
ENROLMENT
We will welcome our first students in September 2024. The four entry points in our first year of inception will be at Year 7 (born 2013), Year 8 (born 2012) and Year 9 (born 2011) for the secondary school and an entry point at first year Sixth Form (born 2008). Entry to the college is by application and under a pre-published set of terms and conditions. The leading principle for the school is that it offers places to talented student-athletes who have demonstrated a significant aptitude and potential in football, athletics, artistic swimming, swimming, and water polo, at their age.
In addition, the selection of student-athletes into the Mediterranean College of Sport considers the following criteria:
- Positive and enthusiastic attitude to support their personal development
- Desire to succeed both in sports and academia
- Self-confidence and resilience
- High potential for future development in their identified sport
- High level of coachability that enables them to seek and accept a variety of feedback
- Very good level of demonstrated physiological attributes, technical competencies relevant to their identified sport (evaluated through a defined sports assessment)
- Demonstrate positive academic effort, behaviour, and achievement
- High level of parental support
Applicants must go through a selection process (primarily a sports assessment and an interview, backed up by the last three academic reports). For admission to 6th Form, applicants must have Sec/O Level passes at grade 5/C or better in Maltese, English, Mathematics and three [3] other subjects. Around 60% of the places in each entry point are set aside for football applicants as this is by far and by sheer weight of participation, the primary sport in Malta. It is envisaged that official applications will open towards the end of 2023. Nonetheless, formal expressions of interest are invited following which MCS would be willing to meet with the interested parents and applicants.
THE CURRICULUM
Our educational programme will take on a learner-centred approach, enabling our students to benefit from a parallel education model where sport is used as a tool to learn core academic skills, theories and creative ways of thinking.
The high-level of education that student-athletes will acquire within the Mediterranean College of Sport will be fuelled by sport science and data analysis – all monitored by professional educators and staff within a creative holistic approach.
Our dedicated and experienced teachers will focus on 21st century skills and adopt a concept-based inquiry pedagogy where inquiry-based learning and concept-based learning merge to focus on the use of active questioning to drive learning and the transferable understanding in organizing learning. Student athletes will be encouraged to develop analytic skills, cognitive skills, communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, decision making as they learn how to confidently work independently when faced with unfamiliar challenges.
The Mediterranean College of Sport
FACILITIES
The Mediterranean College of Sport is set to be one of the most pioneering educational and sporting facilities in the Maltese islands, aiming to develop future athletes of international calibre and brilliance. The facility will be constructed and finished by one of Malta’s leading construction companies Vassallo Builders, a subsidiary of Vassallo Group and operated by the group’s educational arm Learning Works. We will deliver a state-of-the-art facility for student-athletes to develop their potential within a safe and caring environment
Two Football Pitches
Sport
Pavilion
25-metre 6-lane pool
Gymnasia
Athletics
Track
Sports Science Centre
The X factor in our sports provision will be a state-of-the-art Sport Science and Research Centre to be located at the heart of our sport and education complex. The Centre’s key focus will optimize sports performance and endurance while lessening the risk of injury. This will be achieved through direct application of leading-edge science, research, performance testing and athlete monitoring and mentoring.
The five pillars of the Centre will be biomechanics, physiology, psychology, nutrition as well as strength and conditioning.
The Centre will identify strengths and weaknesses so that an individual development programme (IDP) can be designed through an inter-collaborative approach by a multi-disciplinary team of sport-specific and performance coaches, sports science and medical practitioners as well as researchers.
This professional team along with the respective sport-specific coaches will ensure that the MCS student-athletes, their parents and shared coaches at clubs and national selections, are kept up-to-date with training protocols, testing and preparation.
The team will provide evidence-based interventions to the athletes to improve performance.
The academic delivery of the student-athlete’s educational journey will be maintained within the 28 new learning spaces and laboratories that are to be built upon the grounds. These learning spaces will nurture their inherent critical thinking through inquiry based-learning, innovative strategic planning with a growth mindset charging the development as well as other stimulating 21st century skills that will help in preparing students for their next steps in tertiary education.
Once completed the complex will also include a 63-bed residential facility ideal for training camps and live-ins, a child care centre as well as 193 vehicle car park built over two storeys.