This summer, MASC will take its first cohort of students to Malta to learn to scuba dive. Twenty-six students and two members of staff will take their PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water Course.

This summer, MASC will take its first cohort of students to Malta to learn to scuba dive. Twenty-six students and two members of staff will take their PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) Open Water Course, which once passed, will allow them to dive to a maximum depth of eighteen meters.

The group of thirty students and staff will fly out to Malta from Newcastle Airport on Tuesday the 29th of July and return a week later. The twenty six students range between Year 10 and Year 13. 4th Element, a PADI five gold-star rated diving company, have organised both the accommodation and training for this trip. In the first half of the spring term all the trainee divers took part in a trial session at St. Bede's school in their swimming pool. For most of the students this was their first time breathing underwater and several of them can be seen in the ‘Fresh’ broadcast. All are looking forward to a week’s diving in the Mediterranean and staying in a local hotel. 

Another diving trip has already been approved and fully booked. This leaves on 17th October 2008 and is exclusively for year 9 students. This time the destination is the island of Gozo and the size of the group has been reduced to twenty four, eighteen students and six staff. This time four staff and all students will take their open water course. The accommodation and diving for this trip has been organised by dive blue waters based on the island of Gozo. Staff will be self-catering for the students headed by Mrs J Malaby.